Our Own Choices

Into the Dark

Chapter 2: The Darkness Comes

(casual reminder that this story won't be finished unless someone really really wants me to)

Word count: 1.1k

Warnings: War, violence

As I walk out of the office, I can feel many eyes on me. The enemy are not the only ones who have heard of the Demon of The Other Realm. They admire me for my tactics, for not holding back when faced with a choice to kill. That's something most of the others don't have.

It's become instinct now to survive, alone if I have to. Most of the other mech pilots would give their lives up for their brothers in arms. That's weakness. And the Demon of The Other Realm shows no weakness. I will not give my life for anyone on the frontline.

I am called to my next battle in a few hours. I arrive there in a matter of minutes with my mech, which I call Eclipse's Fury. It's shield is now repaired from the previous battle. My mech always gets first dibs when it comes to repairs.

I always feel slightly uneasy when I look down from Eclipse's cockpit down at the battle below, wondering if there are any people who are like me with their metal limbs fighting for their lives down there. But today there is no uneasiness, it almost feels like something is coming home to me.

The enemy mechs are already gathered there, their guns ready to fire. I dive, shield raised to block some of the incoming fire. I get my sword out, soaring upwards to stab one mech from below.

The enemy mechs scatter and fire from far away. I chase after the one with the heavy gun.

"Come here," I smirk. For most people, travelling at this speed would cause them to feel unfocused, but I'm as alert as ever.

I increase my thrusters to max, and catch up with the mech with the heavy gun. It gets out its sword, and clashes with mine.

Under my sword arm, the laser gatling gun there fire, piercing the enemy's cockpit and the light fades from its mech and it falls.

Suddenly, I feel a mech ram into me from behind. I elbow it in the back, one of its hands lets go, but the other is still holding on tight to one of my thrusters, crushing it.

My mech is unstable. Red lights flash in my cockpit showing the damage. I switch my sword to reverse grip and stab the enemy mech holding onto me in the side, while holding my shield up the block the fire from the others.

The enemy mech lets go of my thrusters and falls. My own mech twists to the side where the thruster was destroyed, so now I'm at an awkward angle and a part of my mech is vulnerable to attack.

I get out my gatling guns and fire at the rest, managing to hit around half of them before spiraling in the air and crashing to the ground.

My cockpit is cracked. Wiring from the cockpit digs into my skin, and my metal arm is disabled. I hear gunfire around me, explosions and the sound of flames.

Show no weakness.

My anger at myself numbs the pain. It fuels me. I cannot fail. I must survive. That's all I've ever done.

The enemy mechs land on the ground as I push Eclipse up. I calculate my odds. My shield's still intact, my swords are still sharp, my guns are out of ammo, and it's 5 enemy mechs against 1.

I like these odds.

Their guns are pointed at me, but they're hesitating, giving me enough time to use one of my thrusters to crash into one of the mechs, stabbing it in the cockpit with my sword and I get to my feet.

Suddenly, I feel a rumbling in the ground below me. The air is moving unusually, I can somehow sense it.

It feels...almost welcoming. Like I'm returning to some of my brothers in arms after a hard-fought battle. The enemy mechs are also distracted by the disturbance.

I activate my sword as I charge towards them, slicing 2 of them in half before the other mechs regain their senses.

They fire at me again. I raise my shield, blocking their attacks. Their guns show no sign of low ammo. My shield is glitching out, it's taking too much damage. Their laser bullets get a few hits on Eclipse. One of them pierces my cockpit, hitting me in the stomach.

I wince as the cauterized wound makes me feel breathless. My legs give way and Eclipse falls to the ground. I grit my teeth as I stick my sword into the ground, trying to help myself get up. Pain courses through my body. Not something I haven't felt before. I see one of the enemy mechs raise their sword and ready to stab it at my cockpit. 

Remember the guy who took your arm?

This memory always haunts me. It drives me to fight harder.

As the sword comes down to my cockpit, I block it with my sword, straining to keep it away from my cockpit, as I fight through the haze of pain of wires digging into my skin.

I push the sword of the mech away before swiftly stabbing it in the cockpit. The other mech now starts firing at me again. Most of the lasers hit Eclipse's armour, but a few pierce my cockpit and now I have 3 holes in my chest.

I still fight on. I won't die like this.

Suddenly, a cloud of darkness envelops the enemy mechs and the battlefield. Black clouds...on the ground? Is the pain making me hallucinate or something...

I run away from the darkness as the enemy mechs disappear from view. I feel breathless from my wounds, but they seem to be healing faster than usual. At least, fast enough for me to survive.

I just keep running as I see the Darkness rise over soldiers from both realms, slamming down on them like a giant wave.

I see some lights in the Darkness, I can sense smoke and fire in the cloud. I keep hearing screaming, from I don't know where, and it's driving me insane.

I can feel burning. It's not Eclipse's wires. It feels like a flamethrower burning me. 

I don't look back. I just keep flying away. Tendrils of darkness reach out from the cloud itself and try to hook onto Eclipse. 

My remaining thruster is overheating, it won't be able to hold out for much longer. I feel something grab onto one of Eclipse's legs, weighing me down, pulling me into the Darkness.

I activate my sword and try to cut the Darkness from my leg, but it just moves around my sword and keeps its grip.

For the first time in a while, I feel that choking sensation of fear as I am pulled into the Darkness.

hiii here is my OC

CT-9905 “Aris”

(the one between echo and wrecker)

her number is just coincidental she wasnt made with the batch

She’s a female clone, and she was 14 when the Clone Wars started. The Kaminoans wanted to terminate her but they thought she could be of use for cleaning and stuff, they did give her a bit if training anyways tho. She escaped through Jango Fett’s ship, and found herself of Geonosis. Then she took a Separatist ship during the battle of Geonosis and piloted it to a random planet, living on the streets for a while until the Separatists came to invade the planet. She was cornered by battle droids when Rex saved her and adopted her into the 501st cause *dad rex goated*!!! Rex personally trained her but didn’t allow her to go on missions because protective, she sneaks aboard anyways onto the rookies mission, experienced actual combat for the first time and is super scared, echo and fives comfort her. She’s also a little scared of heights. During the Battle of Kamino, she fought alongside Echo and Fives and Rex and Cody and 99, and 99 was her best friend back on Kamino, so shes super sad when he dies. Rex wants to promote her to ARC trooper alongside Echo and Fives but she refuses, not wanting more expectations to be put on her. She plays call of duty with fives and exho, and theyre like her best friends and big brothers :)

During the citadel rescue, echo “dies” and she tries to help him but shes also severely hurt, rex literally CARRIES her all the way and she makes it back to base alive, but really beaten up and she’s paralyzed cause explosion. Rex and Fives help her walk again, and shes super happy, but since rex is super protective he doesnt allow her to go on missions again, so she clips herself to the outside of the gunship and sneaks onto a bunch of missions. When Fives dies she almost kills Fox but rex stops her. Then during TBB clone wars arc, she joins and the bad batch take interest in her because shes a defective too, and shes also good with a sword and knife + pistols and has *common sense weeee*!!! When they rescue echo shes really happy and she joins the bad batch with echo but hugs rex before she goes cos 😭😭😭

Thats where im at rn shes with the bad batch and her closest friend is gonky in tbb

Relationships:

rex: dad

fives: big brother/best friend

echo: big brother/best friend

kix: good friend

jesse: friend

cody: cool uncle

hunter: “sir”

crosshair: frenemy

wrecker: a little annoying but hes got a good heart

tech: “shut up tech”

gonky: *friendly head pats*

soon to be omega: she sees her old self in omega and doesnt want her to he corrupted

Looks:

Short black hair in a pixie cut, black armor with orange highlights, sword on back (rex gave it to her), 2 pistols on belt, knife on forearm armor, normal helmet but with orange visor, has tbb markings but also rex’s helmet markings, the aurebesh 5, echo’s handprint, the 501st symbol. She also tattoos all the people shes lost on her arm, so theres echo which is canceled on her arm lmfao

im planning on making her depressed after tech dies and crosshair joins the empire and has violent outbursts, especially at omega and hunter, but when crosshair rejoins the batch she calms down

personality: istp, a little reserved but really good homies with the clones, gamer, likes music, likes violence and blood, can kill and will kill if you hurt anyone she loves, and she doesnt usually show it often but she cares about tbb

yea um there we go :)

Welcome back to another OC Sunday Spotlight!

Aka the time in which every Sunday I'll come up with a prompt and anyone and everyone has the opportunity to answer with as many OCs as they wish!

You can reblog this post, answer in the comments, or come up with your own post to answer the prompts! And feel free to submit prompts as well!

It's an excuse to yap about your OCs so feel free to do so! Add pictures, links, or anything else regarding the OC in the spotlight if you'd like! And in addition, feel free to tag any mutuals to hop on the stage :D

Let's get this show started!

SPOTLIGHT ON: WIP OC(s)!

Here are mine!

The beginnings of what I'm calling...

♠️♥️ Deck Squad! ♦️♣️

🃏 All based off of cards in a deck (plus Uno and Wild Card)

🃏 But I have no idea what their armor color is going to be yet :( or how it'll be designed (Suggestions are VERY welcomed!!)

🃏I do want to do something with the number "52" though (like 52nd Battalion or something) since that's how many cards are in a deck

🃏I want them to do cool undercover stuff, like in casinos or whatever - something like that - to match that Ocean's 11 type aesthetic

🃏More info about them individually can be found here! Or just ask me questions about them if you'd like :D

💫 Check out last week's prompt! 💫 Join the tag list here!

i think the clone operative is tech for a few reasons:

the tech turn when he lands the ship

the goofy ahh flopping onto the rocks

callback to one of the episodes where tech falls down a waterfall??

the limping

the frustration with technology and reliance on it

delusion

reasons i think it cant be tech:

crosshair said it didnt work on him cos he was defective so it wouldnt work on tech either cos hes also defective

reasons why its soup clone:

yes

You're free to have whatever views you want regarding ships and fictional characters, but can you at least tag your anti-noelle posts as "#anti-noelle"? or "noelle hate" or whatever?

People who are following the Noelle Holiday and Suselle tags are doing so because they like Suselle and Noelle? So these posts are kind of the last thing we want to see on these tags?

Despite my profile pic I'm not here to debate why Suselle and Noelle. I respect your opinion because debating trivial things like "ships" or "if you should hate a fictional character or not," is dumb.

Discourse is dumb. You can hate Noelle as much as you want, but can please at least tag your posts correctly, so people who don't want to see these posts can filter them out?

oh ok sorry i didnt know those tags existed thanks for the telling me :)

Anakin Skywalkers sister, Aris Skywalker as a bounty hunter

from my fanfiction on wattpad

my account: TBNR_Dream_BMGO

help is it weird that i hate my life and wanna kill myself cause suselle is a better ship than me x susie-

(sorry most of my favourite writers are on another site)

Man I’m tired and I’m sorry for bringing up some less pleasing stuff on here but I feel the need to talk about this. So recently I’ve noticed an increase in people using chat gpt to write fanfiction, even some in the hobbit fandom. Ai “art” has been a pretty difficult topic for me for a while, yet I want to talk about it more and bring people to understand the consequences of it. But I think it’s also important to bring awareness to the other parties suffering from the usage of ai. I chose Bilbo for this cause I think it’s funny how these ai “writers” forget that Bilbo is an actual writer, so to use a tool that steals from other creators would be the worst insult to his craft

So here’s what Bilbo says:

And here’s what I say, tag your favourite writers to show them support!!

@stoadsie @belalubroski @fantasyinallforms @conkers-thecosy @lucigoo @wolfsbane-and-nettles

Our Own Choices

Chapter 8

I hate Rex so much. He hasn't let me on any missions for a few weeks now, and I'm somehow getting bored of writing stories and playing call of duty. Actually no, its just writing stories. Haven't been playing much of call of duty since that happened. Reminds me of him too much. 

I also practice throwing knives sometimes. I've made a compartment in my armor to house about 20 or so knives, I always hit my mark when I throw them. At least if I'm in close or mid range. 

Besides, I usually don't follow Rex's orders anyways, so I've snuck on about 19 missions without his permission.

Fives' death has definitely affected me in worse ways than it should have. I can barely sleep at night, having nightmares of both Fives and Echo's deaths. It's not like Rex notices the dark circles under my eyes anyways, he's been on Anaxes for a while now with the 501st. I wanna go there so badly, just to get some action for once, waiting in the hangar as reinforcements are being sent to Anaxes for a ship that I can get on.

I've been calculating my chances of being spotted getting on a cargo transport that's headed for Anaxes that aren't being checked, and my odds are pretty good. 

So when I check that none of the troopers are looking, I run aboard the cargo transport just as the ship door closes and I get ready for a long trip to Anaxes.

In the cargo ship, I check my gear, making sure that some of the modifications that I made to it in my free time were working. My helmet's visor has a setting which allows me to see the heat signatures of people in my line of sight, which is also orange in color and makes my visor orange when using, which I think is really cool. I added an extra grappling hook that's attached to the armor on my wrist as well, because the only way I could sneak onto missions while I was grounded is if I clipped myself to the outside of the republic gunships and went along for the ride. 

When I arrive on Anaxes, the door opens and I see some troopers unloading the cargo. It's easy to blend into the darkness of the ship with my armor painted black and all, and when the troopers turn away from a moment I slip out of the ship and see Rex, Jesse, Cody and Kix talking to group of some really tall ass clones. Well at least 75% of them are tall. One of them has dog shit for hair and is almost as short as I am.

I see them getting onto a republic gunship and I run to it, using my grappling hook to attach myself to the side of the gunship where the door is closed, and I enjoy the ride as the ship takes off. 

We fly across the reddish terrain that kinda looks like trees but also not really, I can feel the wind against my body, not in my hair cause my helmet's on. I don't even know why I'm coming along for this one, it's literally just instinctive now that when I see a republic gunship with Rex inside I just clip myself to the outside and ride along. Sometimes Rex finds out and happily lets me come along. Yea. Happily. Totally.

It's quite nice out here. Fresh air's so much better than in my room on Coruscant, it doesn't reek of blood that I've had to clean off from my knife a lot, when I accidentally cut myself with it. It's kind of satisfying, sometimes, to just get a small slit on my arm, and watch the blood slowly flow out.

I know, something's definitely wrong with me.

Fives would have really liked this view. Bet he would invite me to get a drink with him after this mission and then play a few rounds of Call of Duty Battle Royale. 

And then as I'm lost in my thoughts, quietly pacing back and forth on the side of the ship, the door opens, and I'm hanging in front of the open door, with Rex folding his arms and staring at me.

"Hi," I wave awkwardly at everyone inside the gunship. 

"I don't think you wanna be out there if we get shot down. " Rex doesn't sound happy. I roll my eyes from under my helmet and curse under my breath, before swinging into the gunship and retracting my grappling hook. The door closes behind me and the inside of the gunship turns dark with a dim red glow.

"So anyways, who's the old man?" I ask, pointing at the dude I landed next to, receiving a death glare from him. I can see Jesse, Kix and even Rex trying to hold in their laughter, because they know I have a point. The dude's hair is literally grey, and there are FUCKING WRINKLES on his face. Or maybe he's just so thin that his skull decided to become really clear.

"That's...Crosshair," the dude with the dog shit for hair says. "Yea, and I'm betting you're Shithair." I receive an elbow in the side by Rex, and I take that as a warning to stop speaking facts. 

Rex pulls me into a corner in the gunship and half-whispers half-demands, "What are you doing here?! I gave you a specific order not to come!" The dude with a receding hairline that's next to me looks at me and then back at his datapad.

"Oh cmon Rex, when have I ever followed orders?" I try to shrug it off. "I'm here now, so it's not like you can throw me off."

"I would very much like to," Rex mumbles under his breath and I hear it, but I don't really care. I move away from Rex and head over to Kix. "Care to give me some introductions on the new guys?"

"That one's Hunter," Kix points at Shithair. "That one's Tech," he points at the dude with the receding hairline. "And that one's Wrecker." He points towards the buff guy. "You ever heard of Clone Force 99, genetically altered clones? Well, here they are."

I think I remember seeing Clone Force 99 back on Kamino, I've tried to sit with them in the cafeteria a few times but I wasn't very successful. 

I stand next to Jesse now, he's receiving a really weird look from Crosshair. Ayo, is the old guy simping? I mean, that could be incest-

Anyways.

"What are you looking at?" Jesse asks.

"We don't usually work with rEgS," Crosshair says, flicking a toothpick at Jesse, which bounces off his armor. Crosshair's voice sounds so (Imperial) weird, not like the normal clones. Then again, I can't really blame him. Is that what clones sound like when they grow old? Or was his voice always like that?

"Regs?!" Jesse takes a step towards Crosshair, but is stopped by Hunter (Shithair). "He's talking about regular clones," Hunter explains. "But don't take it personal."

"Well, I guess we know what's his genetic alteration," I say to Kix, doing a head tilt towards Crosshair. "He's a master at being an asshole."

Kix snickers slightly, nodding. "Yea, that's true."

"We're all on the same team, so cut the attitude and listen up," Cody says, and we all turn to him. Toothpick boi crosses his arms as he turns to Cody. I can almost imagine what's going through his mind right now.

Attitude? I'll show you attitude. *Crosses arms like an irritated child*

"Here's the mission. Our target is this Cyber Center," Cody says, showing a hologram of our target. "It's the brains of this entire Separatist campaign here on Anaxes."

"I can demolish that with one hand! Yeah!" Wrecker says, and I cringe, putting a hand to my helmet and shaking my head. Force, help me.

"This isn't a demo job, Wrecker," Cody says, and I silently thank him. "It's strictly a retrieval operation."

Retrieval means I get to slice up less droids but still some, as long as Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch doesn't steal all the kills. 

"Incoming fire," I hear the pilot of the gunship say, and the gunship shakes a bit, we struggle to keep our balance. And then I hear some hits landing on the gunship, and we're starting to decend, and fast.

"We're going down!" Wrecker laughs like an absolute psychopath, and I'm starting to wonder if he's okay.

I feel the side of the gunship crash against a wall, and I instinctively hold onto Rex for balance, but immediately let go when I realize what I'm doing.

It's not a nice landing. We crash on the side of the gunship and some of us are thrown off balance and get up, coughing at the smoke from the flames of the engine. We quickly get out of the gunship and onto the ground, which looks a bit like blue-stained glass.

"We always get shot down when we travel with regs," Wrecker complains, and I shoot a sideways glance at him. "Stop complaining," I roll my eyes. I hate it when they say we're regs, because not all of us are. At least, not me. But I don't wanna reveal it to them yet, or ever, because so far my impression of them is that Crosshair's an asshole and Wrecker's a psychopath.

I hear Kix calling out for someone to help Cody who's trapped under the gunship debris. I wonder what happened to the pilot though. Probably dead.

"I'll get him," Rex runs forward, but is stopped by Hunter.

"Woah woah woah, easy captain. Wrecker, get him out," he says as he moves Rex to the side and we all watch.

"Get back," Wrecker warns, stepping forward.

"This is ridiculous! He's gonna need help to get Cody outta there," Kix says. Crosshair chuckles at bit, smirking. "He's gonna get the gunship outta there, not Cody."

I stare at him for a moment, before turning back to Wrecker, who literally lifts the whole ass thing up and turns it on the other side, freeing Cody. Wrecker carries Cody on his back and walks away from the debris.

"Boom."

Boom indeed. The gunship explodes and I flinch and step back a bit, because I have no interest in getting paralyzed today. Wrecker sets Cody down on the ground as Kix checks on him. Definitely not good. Cody looks like he just got kicked in the balls, really hard.

"He has internal damage," Kix reports. "I can cut the pain, but he needs help fast."

"We all need help," Crosshair says as he looks ahead, and for a moment I think he's saying that we all need mental help, which isn't exactly wrong, but then I look in the direction that he's looking and see a bunch of droids headed towards us.

"That blast gave away our position," Crosshair says.

"I thought getting shot down gave away our position," Hunter argues.

"I think both did," I cross my arms and say from behind.

"Everyone, find cover. We'll hold this position and let them come to us," Rex says. 

"I don't think so, Captain. That's not our style. We prefer going to them. Bad Batch, plan 82, "shockwave"," Hunter says, and I'm starting to like these guys already. So I just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Wrecker grabs a piece of metal from the gunship that's literally big enough to cover the 4 of them and they run into the blaster fire, the piece of metal blocking them from getting shot. Then I see one of them throwing a stun grenade and then Crosshair fucking shoots it mid-air, which I gotta admit IS FUCKING AWESOME, and they do it a few more times before splitting up and dealing with the remaining droids.

I run over to Wrecker, Tech and Crosshair. "THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL BRO," I look at Crosshair, and he just puts a toothpick into his mouth and turns away.

"Aren't you a little short to be a reg?" Tech asks. 

"That's none of your business," I say, shooting a glare at him. I still haven't warmed up to them yet, but I wouldn't mind warming up to Crosshair, he's so fucking cool and maybe I could get him to teach me how to shoot a sniper sometime, I'll probably have to bribe him with toothpicks though.

So anyways, Rex and the others start walking ahead and we follow them, I stay at the back and Crosshair seems to be the one who wants to walk behind everyone else, including me. 

And here I was thinking that I was gonna be at the back.

We walk for a while, and we decide to set up camp in the forest, it's turning night now. Hunter goes to eat dirt or smth and I sit next to Kix and Jesse.

"So I get what makes the other Batchers unique, but what's so special about Hunter?" Jesse asks.

"He can put up with the other three," Kix replies, and all of us smirk slightly.

"He was engineered with heightened senses. A place like the Cyber Center, Hunter can feel the electromagnetic frequencies from anywhere on the planet," Tech says. 

"And here I was thinking we were smart just using a holomap," Jesse nudges me and Kix with his elbow.

"Well, maps can be wrong. Hunter never is."

"So is he eating the dirt or something?" I ask, and Kix and Jesse burst out laughing, I try to keep a straight face under my helmet. 

"He is feeling the dirt, not eating it," Tech says, and I roll my eyes. I hear Cody groaning in the corner, he doesn't look so good, and Rex is beside him, telling him to hang in there. Then he stands up. "Listen up. We have to move out."

Crosshair stands up and walks towards Rex. "Commander Cody's in no position to move."

"Already called in evac. Kix will stay with Cody until it arrives. I'm in charge now. And I've got a plan to get into that Cyber Center."

Crosshair takes his toothpick out from his mouth and points it at Rex. "If your plans are so good, why did Commander Cody have to call us in?" 

Wrecker stands up as well and walks over. And so does Jesse. "You can't talk to Captain Rex like that!" 

I roll my eyes from under my helmet, sighing. Can we not do this right now? 

"Says who?" Wrecker growls, picking Jesse up by the neck. Rex tries to get Wrecker to put him down while Crosshair puts Kix in a choke hold, and I give him a punch to the face and a kick in the balls for that. Crosshair's definitely not happy as he stumbles back a bit, and he kicks me in the chest, sending me down to the floor, and my helmet falls off. 

"Uh guys-" Tech tries to get everyone to calm down.

"Wrecker, drop him. Now," Hunter commands, and we all turn to him as Wrecker drops Jesse onto the ground. "Fellas, cmon! We're all fighting for the same thing, right?"

I take out my vibro-knife and move behind Crosshair, holding the knife to his neck and him in a choke hold from behind.

Hunter sighs. "All right then. Let's cut the chatter and finish what we started. We'll do it your way, Captain. For Commander Cody."

I let go of Crosshair as Rex gives me that "don't make this worse" look, and toothpick boi dusts himself off.

"Okay. Let's gear up and move out," Rex says.

Now that the batch know that I'm a female, there's no point putting on my helmet until we're in battle, so I just carry it under my arm for now. Crosshair and I stay at the back of the group, and he glares down at me, he's like a whole head taller than me, and I glare up at him.

"Didn't expect you to be a female," he says as he puts a toothpick into his mouth. 

"Didn't expect you to be addicted to toothpicks. Why not try chewing gum or something? You could get splinters if you chew the toothpicks too hard." I'm being slightly nicer now.

Crosshair rolls his eyes. "Gum's too soft. Just like you." 

I glare at him again before moving in front of him, but not before I knock my shoulder into his, showing my annoyance.

Soon, we all put our helmets on and scan the area, making our way closer to the cyber center, blasters drawn. Hunter raises his hand, motioning for us to stop. I see an outpost over the others' heads, we're probably either gonna take it or go around.

"Not our primary target," Hunter says. "It's an outpost. Should we take it?"

"Probably easier than going around," Rex replies.

"Alright, what're your orders? We pick them off from the tree line one by one?"

"Actually, I was thinking we take a page from your book. Rush them head on."

HELL YEA.

"Heh. I like your style."

So we take some shots at the droids and then we run out from where we were hiding, blasting at the droids. I stab one in the head just before Hunter can, and I smirk at him from under my helmet as we run into the lift, I can feel his annoyance at me stealing his kill.

"Too slow?" I ask, as the lift ascends, and we each face different directions, shooting the droids. I go for melee this time, drawing my sword in one hand and my knife in the other, and I slice up a few droids. Crosshair throws one against the wall and I throw my knife at it, it hits the middle of the droid's head. As Tech blasts the last droid, Wrecker comes up through the lift.

He looks around, blaster ready, but all the droids are already dead. He takes off his helmet. "Is it over already? Aw man!"

We all take off our helmets. "Not bad," Hunter says to Rex. "For a reg."

We head over to the window of the outpost, and look out.

"Well, there it is. The Cyber Center," Rex says.

"It looks like the Cyber Center itself has minimal guards, about 30 droids," Tech says as he does some stuff with the control panels. "Oh, wait, wait. I got a massive signal coming in. A whole platoon of droids is headed this way."

"Someone's noticed our handiwork back at the crash site," Hunter says.

"Yeah. Make sure you keep an eye on those incoming Separatist forces. I wanna know when they reach this outpost. We gotta move swiftly."

"We'll grab some speeder bikes and flank them from the back," Hunter says.

I follow Jesse and Rex and we sneak behind 2 battle droids, tackling them from behind and shooting them down.

We hide behind a tree and look out at the battle droids guarding the cyber center.

"Is everyone in position?" Rex asks.

"Affirmative," I hear Hunter say through the comms, and then Crosshair says the same thing.

"Cap, you wanted to know when those Separatist forces breached the outpost. Well, they're getting there just about now," Tech says through the comms.

Rex, Jesse and I get ready to shoot the droids guarding the entrance. Rex aims and shoots the head off the yellow-headed one, and we all run in, blasting droids left and right. Rex throws a stun grenade at the group of droids, knocking them down, and we take cover behind some crates.

We move forwards, still taking cover and blasting the droids. I can feel the adrenaline rush that I missed so much. 

Hunter and Wrecker come out of the doors behind the droids that we're blasting at, taking care of them quickly. We run over to them as a transport comes into view. Definitely carrying more droids.

"Better get in there, Cap," Wrecker says as him, Hunter, Jesse and I wait to blast the droids that will be coming out any second now.

Beams carrying dozens of b2 super battle droids extend out, and the droids drop to the ground and start firing at us. We move to the side a bit, avoiding their blaster fire and firing back. In most cases, I could sneak behind and cut them all in half, but there's too many of them, and I don't feel like dying today.

The battle droids advance and we take cover behind some crates.

"Crosshair, we're gonna need a lift," Hunter says into the comms as the rest of us continue blasting the droids.

"Not gonna be a problem," Crosshair replies through the comms, and suddenly I'm thinking about how he's gonna solo the entire group of battle droids like how those pro snipers do in Call of Duty. Having one on your team is useful, but having one on the opposing team is an absolute nightmare.

The battle droids are getting closer and we retreat into the Cyber Center, still shooting as many droids as we can, and then we reach the room where Rex is in and tell him to go. We run through the hallway and out through the back door, where we're surrounded by a bunch of droids, but we're still blasting at them.

Then a vehicle descends behind us and Crosshair is driving it. We all get in and he drives us outta there.

I climb to the seat behind Crosshair.

"Didn't know you could fly," I say to him as I take off my helmet. "You got any of those toothpicks that I can chew?"

Crosshair rolls his eyes. "No. Go chew your gum." I roll my eyes back at him and sit behind him, turning to Rex.

"Hey Captain, what intel did you get?" I ask him.

"Transmission from Skako Minor. I asked them who it was. They said CT-1409," Rex says, and my eyes widen, but I try to keep my composure.

"Echo..." 

"Yea kid. Echo's alive."

happy bad batch eve

Into the Dark

Chapter 3: Imprisoned

Word count: 872

Warnings: none! (for once)

When I open my eyes, everything's dark. I can't see anything. I'm starting to think I'm still out cold, but when I slap my face with my palm, I can feel it, so I'm probably awake.

Probably.

My metal arm is working now, I can feel my fingers moving when I flex them. Even though I can't see anything around me, I can sense that I'm in a room. I can just make out the faint outline of bars in front of me. This is a prison cell. And I'm the prisoner.

I'm constantly hearing whispering, it almost feels like it's coming from the walls around me. 

"CAN YOU SHUT UP?!" I shout, and the voices go silent for a moment, before I hear the whispering start again.

I can see black lines running up my body. They weren't there before. I instantly start scratching at them, trying to get them off of me. They refuse. I keep scratching, my skin is flaking now, and I'm causing more harm to myself than the black lines on me.

Eventually I stop, knowing that the black lines won't go away. I can literally hear them telling me that it's no use.

They feel weird on me. It's as if I've had them all my life, but they're only deciding to come out now. I can feel a tingling sensation on my skin, and I'm blaming the black lines for it.

My weapons are gone. Nothing to blast my way out of here with. I stand up and walk towards the bars, looking at the area outside my cell. There are many other cells, but they're all empty. I'm the only prisoner here, and guards are stationed outside my cell. 

I've broken out of prison before, but that was when I could actually see the stuff around me. I can't see 10 meters ahead of me.

I think been in too much war. I literally haven't even asked what is happening, like any normal human would.

What is happening?

I put my hands against the bars of my cell and try to look out further. I suddenly feel a strong force on my arms, and when I look down, I see the darkness from the bars spreading out to reach the black lines on my arms, and they connect, and they're pulling me in. I try to pull my hands away, but the darkness is too strong. It won't let me go.

Suddenly, a blade extends into my cell and cuts me free. I only get to catch a quick glimpse of the blade before it retracts again. It's black and has orange highlights on it which are barely visible.

"Okay, lesson learned, don't touch the bars," I say to myself.

I lean against the wall of my cell, sitting down. I recognized this as one of the cells from the Other Realm. I got captured here before, but I escaped with ease. This was one of the less secure prisons in the Other Realm, where they used to put the captured rookie mech pilots.

I press a hand to my forehead. My head hurts from all the voices that I'm hearing in my head. 

I look up to the bars. 

What are these things made out of? 

I think they're the same stuff as the black lines on my skin, based on how they connected with each other just now.

Some voices in my head are now louder than others. Some even project images into my head. One of the prison that I'm in, another of what the world has just become, and...me? In my cell? I look around, scanning my cell for any security cameras. There's none. How am I supposed to escape if these guys in my head can see everything that I'm doing? Maybe they can't and they're just trying to scare me from trying to escape.

"Don't bother trying to escape. We're watching you," one of the voices says. 

They can read my fucking thoughts now?

"Language," one of them says.

Shut up.

"No."

I swear if you don't shut the fuck up right know I'm gonna cut my own head off.

"With what? You have no weapons."

Am I seriously having a conversation with myself right now?

"Not with yourself. With us."

Who's us?

No reply.

HEY ANSWER MY QUESTION BRO.

No reply either.

I look down at my body. Ever since I arrived here my injuries from the past battle haven't been visible. 

I press a hand to where the cut on my face was in the previous battle. I can only feel black lines covering it-

WAIT WHAT?!?!!?!?

I remove my hand from my face and glance down at my hand, there's nothing. There's a tingling sensation on the area where the cut is. After a while, I decide to check the wound again.

I only feel skin and a few black lines.

Did those things just heal me?

"Yes, they did. Now you better get comfortable, because you're gonna be here for a long time."

I smirk. 

You don't know me. I can bet that by morning, I'll be outta here and on my way back to base.