Our Own Choices

Layers

(Art is by my friend soap)

Chapter 1: The Waterfall

Warnings: None

Genre: Fantasy/Short Story

The limestone rocks dig into my already peeling fingers as I grasp another hold, hauling myself up to the edge of the cliff. I’m greeted by the sight of lush green trees looming over me, shielding me from the sun’s rays. I look behind me, reveling in the view of the sparkling blue ocean. 

“I’ll explore up here and abseil down in a bit!” I shout down at the person belaying me, taking a few steps into the cluster of trees before untying the rope from my harness. 

I set my bag down next to a tree, collapsing down onto a soft bed of leaves, inhaling that sweet familiar forest smell I recognise from home. I sigh as I lean back against the tree, staring out at the islands clustered together around the one I’m at. It’s so much better than being in the city. There, the constant need for caution strangles me, but here, the freedom comforts me.

It’s been 10 years since my parents divorced. I think I’m coping well. At least, I hope so. Climbing’s the only thing that makes me feel alive.

I wish I could stay here forever. 

I stuff my water bottle back into my bag, zipping it up and throwing it over my shoulders, before standing up and walking into the maze of trees that stands in front of me.

For a cliff, there’s a hefty number of trees up here. I keep walking for a few minutes, the thick canopy blocking most sunlight. Tree roots litter the ground, threatening to trip me every few steps. 

I hear birds singing. Perhaps there’s a nest nearby, with eggs inside. I wonder if they’d taste good. 

As I continue walking on, the singing of the birds starts to get drowned out by what sounds like a…waterfall? I don’t recall ever seeing a waterfall on the map. The leaves crunch under my footsteps. Until I realise they aren’t leaves anymore. They’re bones. Not human bones, but eerily similar. 

I should probably head back.

I turn around to walk back to the cliff, but a little voice in my head tells me to keep going.

What do you have to lose anyways?

Besides my life and my money?

Could be fun. Don’t be a wimp.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I continue walking ahead. The bones staring from the ground sending shivers down my spine. The sound of the waterfall keeps getting louder. A few moments later, I stop in my tracks.

I’m greeted with a black frame with its interior glowing a dull blue. The waterfall sounds seem to be coming from inside. The frame is covered with vines which hang over the blue light of the portal. The pulsing portal seemed to emit a mysterious yet inviting aura, and I can’t help but unconsciously drift towards it. 

Excuse me, what?! Um…I should probably go now before I get sucked in and die.

As I turn around and take my first step away from the portal, I feel a sharp tug at my core and I find myself plummeting down a waterfall, water splashing into my eyes and mouth and nose, barely any time to scream as I hit a pool of water feet-first, plunging into the dark depths. Yet it’s surprisingly warm. 

I quickly swim up, hanging onto my bag as I break the surface, taking a gasp of air.

It smells sweet. Like rainwater. Glowing blue flowers float on the surface of the pool, seemingly undisturbed by the cascade of water just a few meters away. In fact, the whole pool seems undisturbed. Bag in hand, I swim over to land and haul myself up, scanning my surroundings, still shaken from the fall.

What…was that…?

The terrain is vibrant. Too vibrant. Layers of red and white and teal and blue form the cliffside that the waterfall flows down from. 

Am I dreaming?

I pinch myself to check, my heart rate skyrocketing as I feel the pain. 

No no no... This isn’t good. I need to get back.

I run a few steps backwards, hoping to get a good view of whatever I just feel through, but all I see is an empty black frame. It would be too risky to free climb back up, especially since this is unknown territory.

The ground looks a somewhat like a staircase. Layer after layer of vibrant-coloured rocks lead down to a little village in the distance. Trying to calm my nerves and failing miserably, I sling my bag over my shoulders and head down the “stairs”, towards the village. 

The sky is painted yellow and orange and red, as if the sun is setting. But I see no sun. It will probably get dark soon. I start to pick up the pace as I worry about what may come out in the night, despite the seemingly peaceful surroundings. 

The colourful gravel crunches beneath my feet. But soon, the ground starts to even out. The layers start to disappear, leaving flat ground for me to walk smoothly on. Night has fallen, the sky now a dark blue spreading as far as I can see. 

The gravel slowly starts to turn into a tiled path. There are houses on both sides of the path, their lights giving off a warm yellow glow. I smell sugar donuts coming from a short building that has the words “Baked Stuff” on it.

My stomach growls.

I want donuts.

I head into the building, a little golden bell that’s connected to the door ringing as I walk in. 

“Welcome!” a…human-shaped mass of stone says. Its arms and legs look exactly like the cliff with the waterfall. I blink, pinching myself again to make sure I’m not dreaming.

“Um…hi,” I wave awkwardly at the stone person.

“Prices are stated here,” the stone person says, pointing to the little pieces of paper with a number written on them.

“I’m sorry…but what is the currency here, and how do I get some?” I ask.

The stone person narrows its eyes. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

It knows?!

I stand still, my eyes scanning the stone person up and down, looking out for any threats, body tensing up.

“...Yes…” I say with a strained voice.

The stone person bursts out laughing. “Look at your face!” It doubles over, clutching its abdomen, before regaining its composure and standing up straight. It’s slightly shorter than me with its short, stubby legs. It passes me a donut with some blue glowing cookie crumbs on it. 

“Here. It’s on the house. Made from Waterfall Flowers,” it says, and I take the donut, hesitantly taking a bite.

The sweet yet sour flavour explodes on my tongue, and it reminds me of lemon sorbet. 

“Good, isn’t it?” the stone person asks, the rocks on its face moving to form something resembling a smile. I nod, my mouth full.

“If you’re looking for a place to stay for the night, there’s an inn a few houses down. Tell the receptionist that you’re my friend and you should get a free room. Have a good night!” the stone person calls as I walk out of the shop, waving goodbye. “Thank you!”

I walk down the path, devouring the donut in a few bites, before reaching the inn. Another stone person stands at the reception, little blue glowing rocks embedded in its body. 

“Hi…uh…I'm friends with the person at the bakery…she said I could get a free room here?” I walk up to the counter, avoiding eye contact. 

“Oh? Sure! Yours is room 130,” the receptionist says, passing me a glowing blue flower.

I take the flower, unsure of what to do with it, but not daring to question the receptionist. Something feels off about these people. It probably doesn’t help that they’re made out of literal stone.

Soon, I reach room 130, finding a flower-shaped lock on the door. I press the flower into the lock, causing it to glow before the door swings open in front of me. 

The room is carpeted, a single bed in the middle and a toilet near the entrance. Without hesitation, I throw my bag to the floor and fall onto the bed, letting the softness hug me to sleep.

When I wake up, I’m no longer in the room. Layers of rock press against my back. Glowing blue vines immobilise me. I hear the waterfall.

What’s going on?!

I struggle futilely against the vines. It smells sweet. Almost too sweet. Panic starts to set deep in my gut, rendering me frozen.

Some of the rocks on the walls slide down next to me, clinging to the vines almost as if trying not to fall. A few move to box me in against the cliff, forming a large humanoid shape. Little blue lights decorate its surface. 

A collection of voices ring out simultaneously. I hear the shop owner and receptionist’s voice, along with a few others I don’t recognise.

“Hehe. You really are like the others.” 

Into The Dark is an original story that I came up with and is currently ongoing

its a some dystopian stuff that I abandoned lol

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BOYS

TBB fandom is dying

TBB fans rise up we can't let this fandom die its the last best thing that came in Star Wars

(im too lazy to type it out again)

i have mixed feelings about the finale tmr

im scared that someone in the batch will die

im excited cos FREE ZILLY

im sad cos the bad batch got me out of a depresso time in my life and now its ending

im happy cos its tbb

im not ready for tmr

just met north star in undertale yellow and BRO HES MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER ALREADY THIS GUY IS GOATED THE WILD EAST IS SO FUN

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL THANK YOU

Time is the giver and the thief of all things.

Eye of the Universe by McKane Davis

You all know how meaningful this show is for me. Now that it's over, I wanted to honor this show and these characters with a song that I've related to them since the beginning of season three. I love all the lessons I've learned, all the comfort I've gotten, all the emotions I've felt, all the people I've met, all the stories I've written... I cannot be more grateful for this show's existence. I will be rewatching for years to come, and even if the show has officially ended, it will always be a part of me.

TBB SEASON 3 IS OUT WOOOOO

Short story: 13

Good soldiers follow orders.

I see war. Death. Flames everywhere as explosions go off around me, but I'm surprisingly unscathed. Flying jets whizz past me through the air to attack enemy bombers. I'm standing there hesitantly, the hands holding my semi-automatic blaster shaking from the adrenaline rush. I've been here many times before. The outcome is the same every time.

Good soldiers follow orders.

Order 13. Fight to the death. No surrender.

It's like my body is on autopilot and I'm watching from behind a screen. I charge into the raging battle, shooting at enemies, my aim surprisingly good compared to during basic training. Grenades rain down upon the battlefield, dying screams of humans and aliens alike filling my ears. My body shows no signs of discomfort but in my mind, I'm trying to cover my ears to block out the sound.

An enemy bomber travels over my head, dropping its bombs in the process. I've been here too many times. I know what's going to happen. I close my eyes.

The sounds of explosions are almost deafening. The bombs drop down right next to me, exploding upon contact. The force pushes me backwards as the heat of flames engulf me. The sounds fade, my eyes still closed.

It's ending.

My eyes flutter open as I find myself in the comfort of my bed. I let out a soft groan as I get up. Apps appear in front of my eyes as I scroll through them, looking for the app that tracks my sleep. I open it and the screen projects in front of me, showing my sleep quality, restlessness and periods of REM and deep sleep. The statistics displayed are the usual. Restless throughout the whole night and sleep quality was absolutely terrible. I've been having these nightmares lately. It's not something I can control. The control chips in our heads are supposed to prevent that. We get to select our dreams before we sleep. Yet mine are different. I select dreams of Star Wars. All I get are nightmares of a battle which I've never seen before. It's not Star Wars. The technology is similar, but there's no Earth in that universe. My nightmares are of war on Earth.

My chip must be malfunctioning. That's not good. It's implanted into every human's brain so if it malfunctions, it would probably interfere with our primary brain functions, hence killing us. But I'm not dead yet.

I head into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. The image of my parents peacefully sleeping in their bedroom projects in front of me. I managed to gain access to the security camera in their bedroom, so I can see when they wake up.

I prepare my breakfast and eat it in silence, monitoring my parents in their bedroom through the projection. After finishing my breakfast and making sure my parents are still asleep, I head out of the door and run next door to find my neighbour, Mayday. Just when I reach his house, Mayday's already outside, waiting for me. I give him a nod and he nods back.

We head out into the forest near our house. I switch off the projecting function on my chip so that I won't be distracted by any notifications I receive on the walk.

As we walk into the forest, light shines through the canopy of leaves, creating patches of light here and there. I jump from one patch to another, laughing as Mayday follows behind me.

Suddenly, I hear a whistling sound cutting through the air and then a loud boom. My head jerks in the direction of the sound. I turn the projecting function on my chip back on and in my head, I order the chip to show me where the sound came from.

Similar sounds follow the first one as the image of an unfamiliar aircraft dropping bombs down on another nearby housing area projects in front of me. Mayday catches up with me. "What is it?"

"Bombs," I reply simply.

Another boom echoes through the forest, but much louder this time. The bombs must be getting closer. There's a sickening feeling in my stomach as the volume of the sounds just keeps increasing.

I take off running into the forest, away from the direction of the bombing sounds. Mayday quickly follows. My legs feel like they're flying under me as my adrenaline pushes me to keep running. My heart feels like it's going to explode as I dash back to me and Mayday's housing area.

When we reach back, I'm panting heavily as I sprint to my house, where my parents are already waiting for me to come back, looking very worried. The moment they see me they quickly force me inside the house without a word.

The bombing sounds continue for a few more minutes until silence. That's when the order comes in.

Execute order 13.

Every human is to immediately head to the weapons point in each of their housing estates and gather at a military base. An unidentified species has attacked multiple housing areas and are currently sending ground soldiers to kill any survivors. Fight to the death. No surrender.

My parents seem to have gotten the order too as their heads perk up, just like mine.

Good soldiers follow orders.

I feel like I'm going to vomit. I can almost imagine the battlefield. I've seen it many times before in my nightmares.

I feel like I'm watching through a screen now as my body picks itself up from the floor and walks out of the door, my parents following alongside me, and every other human in my housing area, except Mayday and his parents. I try to force myself to stop walking, stop walking towards certain death.

As my body walks itself to the weapons point at our housing estates, I can see Mayday running up to me and asking me what's going on. I try to shout, "Help me!" but nothing comes out of my mouth as my body stares blankly ahead, still walking.

Mayday shakes my shoulders. I can feel it. As much as I want to respond to him, to run away with him, my body simply won't allow it.

Mayday's parents come up to me as well, and drag me away. My body struggles desperately with considerable strength that I didn't even know I had, but was probably activated by the chip. My limbs thrash around wildly as I try to escape Mayday's parents' grip. They drag me to their house, and lead me into a basement, where a few people are already there, I assume they're friends of Mayday and his parents.

Then, I feel Mayday's parents strapping me to a table connected to a machine. My body is still struggling against the restraints as I feel the prick of a needle against my neck, and everything goes black.

When I wake up, I'm not watching myself through a screen anymore. My vision is blurry as I move my hand to see if I'm in control of my own body now. My hand moves ever so slightly as my vision starts to clear up.

I let out a soft groan as I sit up on the table, my restraints were taken off at some point, apparently. I try to project the screen of what's going on outside in front of me, but I can't. They've taken my chip out.

Mayday runs over and throws his arms around me, and I hug back ever so slightly. "You're back!" he laughs as he lets go of me. "We thought you weren't going to make it, you weren't waking up..."

I silently nod, scanning the room. It's dimly lit by a singular lamp, and there are around seven people in there. My parents included. Mayday and his parents must've saved them too.

Suddenly, I hear the sounds of bombings above me. The lamp in the room flickers and shakes.

"Let's go. We can't save any more. They're all at the military base, they'll be armed," Mayday's mother says. All of us quickly run up from the basement. Mayday's house is in ruins. But that's the least of our worries right now. Bombs are being dropped a few kilometers from us, I can feel the force of the explosion hitting me.

We quickly run into the forest to take shelter. They won't attack the forest. There's no humans here to kill, at least up till now. We keep running, deep into the forest until the sounds of bombings are faint and barely audible.

When we stop, I slump against a tree, breathing heavily.

"What now?" I manage to ask in between gasps for air.

Everyone looks at each other, as if they want to ask the same question.

Mayday's father speaks up.

"We hide, I guess. At least until the war is over. We won't be attacked here. We're safe."

I hear the faint sound of bombings again.

Safe? I hope so.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 11

General Skywalker comes in to check on us. I don't say anything to Echo, because I know that anything that will come out will be a pile of emotional shit. And I don't wanna do that in front of General Skywalker, Tech, or even Rex. Too embarrassing. Besides, Echo probably won't give a shit.

I can still hear some blaster fire from outside. "Situations almost under control out there," General Skywalker says. "How's it going in here?"

"I'm still trying to decrypt Echo's cerebral interface," Tech reports. "Until I do, we cannot disconnect him from this computer system."

"How's he doing, Rex?" General Skywalker's tone softens. Rex stands up. "He's too weak to walk. Very disoriented. Doesn't even remember how he got here. He remembers being at the Citadel, but that's about it."

Who wouldn't remember that?

"Any word on the extraction squad?"

"We called it in, but no word back," Rex replies.

A droid comes flying into the room, and I assume it's thrown by Wrecker. "Well, that's no surprise." Maybe General Skywalker's referring to the extraction squad and the droid that just crashed in here. "We knew when we got into this we'd be on our own."

Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair back into the room, closing the doors. "It's gonna get more difficult to get outta here," Hunter says, loud enough so that all of us can hear it. "There are several squads of droids closing in." I hear Hunter and Crosshair sealing the door.

Shit.

"Enemy approaching. Droids. Lots of em," Crosshair says.

"How long can you hold them off?" General Skywalker asks.

"How long do you need?" Hunter replies.

"Tech, how much longer?" 

"Not yet. I need more time."

I can feel the atmosphere get more tense. 

Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay.

Yea right it is.

Shut the kriff/fuck up.

No you.

I look at Hunter and Crosshair, who are sealing another pair of blast doors. I look over at Tech, who's pressing a few buttons before saying, "I've got it. We can unplug him now." And then he takes off his helmet, showing his receding hairline.

Echo turns around, and Rex and I start unplugging him, ripping off a wire from one side of his neck, and then the other. Echo clutches onto the control panel, I can tell it hurts a lot.

Sorry.

And then Rex rips out the last cable from his head, and Echo falls to the ground, groaning slightly. "Rex?"

"What is it?" Rex looks concerned. Echo coughs a bit, before smiling slightly. "I got a big headache."

"Better to feel something than nothing, old buddy," Rex says, smiling.

"At least your sense of humor's still intact. Now what our fucking plan on getting outta here?" I ask.

Echo coughs slightly. "There's an exhaust vent that leads to the cooling systems right there," he says, pointing upwards at a circular vent on the ceiling.

"They've breached the front door," Hunter reports. "It won't be long before they're through the second."

I look up at the exhaust vent. How the kriff are we supposed to get up there? 

Echo uses his cybernetic arm and plugs it into the control panel, turning some stuff. "That should get it open."

I look up. The exhaust vent opens, revealing an upwards tunnel that's glowing blue.

"Great. Now how do we get up there?" Crosshair asks. Bro literally spoke my mind. 

"I can help with that," Wrecker replies, and I see him grabbing a slightly confused Hunter and throwing him up the vent.

"WRECKER WHAT R U DOING-" 

I hold back a laugh as Hunter shouts, "A heads-up would've been nice!"

One by one, Wrecker throws each of us up the vent, and after he throws Tech up, it's my turn. 

"Just don't grab me by the ass," I warn him, for obvious reasons. 

So he grabs me by the sides and throws me up, and I grab the side of the vent, climbing up behind Tech. Rex follows behind me. Fives and Echo usually do that, but I guess since Echo's not really functioning right now and Fives is DEAD COS FUCKING FOX KILLED HIM-

Rex just likes to make sure I don't fall to my death. I'm really tempted to kick him. 

We climb up to reach the cooling systems and Crosshair helps me up. I hear an explosion down below and assume that's Wrecker's work.

We walk through the cooling vents and Rex and I help Echo walk. Echo says that he can find us a safe way outta here. My fingers are slightly cold, because it's a cooling system, obviously. My gloves don't help much, considering they leave my fingers exposed. It's a design choice. It looks cool.

"Well, there is a way," Echo says, and he's referring to how we're gonna escape this place. "But you're not gonna like it."

We walk through the cooling systems for a while, General Skywalker and Echo leading the way, until we reach a door that opens up to the above of a large metal pipe connecting to another of those floating city buildings. It's windy as we step out. I don't particularly like heights either. Echo was right. I don't like this at all.

"I don't know about this," Rex says as he looks out. 

"I'm telling you, there's a landing pad on that other building," Echo says, pointing to the building across the pipe.

"So you think there's a ship there we can steal?" Hunter steps out as well.

"Well, I hope there's a ship we can steal," Echo replies.

R u serious right now bro

"Let's hope this trip isn't for nothing," Hunter says as General Skywalker, Echo and Rex start walking across the pipe.

If it is, I'm definitely hacking your Call of Duty account and using up all your COD points.

I follow behind Rex, and Hunter and the batch are behind me.

"Oh boy, I can't even look," I hear Wrecker say from the back.

"Then don't," I reply from the front. 

"Just keep walking, Tech," Wrecker says.

"That's fine, but if you fall don't take me with you."

"Uh oh, I looked," Wrecker sounds scared. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"If you vomit don't vomit on Tech," I tell him.

"Hang on Wrecker, we're almost there," Hunter tries to calm down a currently very freaked out  Wrecker.

I hear that familiar sound of droids coming from the front, and draw my knife and pistol, trying to keep my balance on the pipe. To be honest, drawing my weapons makes it easier.

"Turn around! Go back!" General Skywalker shouts from the front, and I see him igniting his lightsaber. When we turn around, we see some more droids coming from the back.

Shit. We're either fucked or very fucked.

I hear General Skywalker deflecting a blast bolt at a droid and Tech shoots another, I throw one of my knives at one of the droids' heads, and the droid falls from the pipe. 

I never liked that knife anyway.

I see Crosshair falling from the pipe and Wrecker, despite his intense af fear of heights, literally jumps down and catches Crosshair, hanging by the legs from a support just below the pipe.

Stupid ass. Bro could've died.

"Anyone got a brilliant idea?" General Skywalker shouts.

"I do have a brilliant idea," Tech responds.

"I'm hanging here!" Wrecker shouts from below.

"When the locals attacked us, I recorded the creature's distress call," Tech says, tapping a few buttons on his datapad.

"He records everything. It's a hobby," Hunter says, as I shoot a few more of the droids, not wanting to use my knives because those things are expensive.

"Which allows us to call those flying creatures to us," Tech continues, and presses a button which produces a really high-pitched screeching noise, and we cover our ears to try and block out the sound.

"Ow! Enough with the sound!" Wrecker shouts, and he and Crosshair shoot from below. Crosshair's literally hanging from Wrecker, and he literally puts all his trust into Wrecker not to let him fall while he shoots the droids.

Really wish I had friends like that. Oh wait, I did. Yea, that was Fives. And Echo. But I was closer to Fives. 

"There is our ride out of here!" Tech says, pointing at some shadows in the clouds which I could only assume to be the flying creatures that he called, and we all look up at them as they fly up and past us.

"Now how do we get on them?" General Skywalker asks, and I shoot another droid.

We jump you fucking dumbass.

"How else? We jump," Tech replies as the flying creatures fly below us, and General Skywalker jumps and lands on one of them.

You can do this. 

I can hear my heart pounding in my chest, and I see Hunter looking at me expectantly, and because I have to impress the batch, I use what little strength is left in my legs and jump off, trying not to close my eyes.

I land on one of them, on its back. I'm breathing heavily. That choking feeling when I'm in a life-threatening situation starts surfacing, and I'm trying to calm down, gulping down dust-filled air like I'm resurfacing from a deep dive.

And now I'm starting to get angry. Getting scared like this makes me feel weak in front of the others. I don't like it. I hate this. 

Suddenly, a blaster bolt whizzes past my head, and I look back seeing a bunch of droids shooting at us. 

Gotta steer this thing. But I don't know how. My legs grip the flying creature tighter, because I have no interest in dying today.

I turn back and aim with my pistol, lining the back sight up with the front sight and aiming slightly below the droid's head, and I shoot. It hits the droid in the head and I shoot at the others.

We fly sideways, and I was just aiming at another droid when I feel a sharp pain shoot through my right hand. It slams against a rock, hard, and my pistol flies out of my hand, and my hand doesn't feel so good. I grit my teeth as I'm almost thrown off the flying creature, and I'm hanging on for dear life on the creature's tail with my left hand. 

I can barely move my right hand, it hurts so much. But with one last clench of my fist, which sends jolts of pain shooting down my arm, I shoot my grappling hook at the back of the creature, pulling myself up as I retract my grappling hook.

"Hey ad'ika! How you holding up?" I hear Echo shout from the flying creature next to me.

 I take a few moments to regain my sense of surroundings and find out that we outmaneuvered all the droids. 

Should I shout back? That could come off as cringe to the batch. 

I nod at him as we land back in the Poletec village. Before the flying creature lands, I jump off and land on my feet, dusting myself off, at least hoping to look slightly cool to the batch. My injured hand throbs as I land, but I try to act as if it doesn't hurt at all.

The Poletec leader comes up to us and starts shouting shit at us.

"Their leader is impressed that we tamed the Keeradaks," Tech translates. "But he wants to know why we returned here."

"Tell him we had no choice. Tell him...that we wore out our welcome in Purkoll," General Skywalker tells Tech, who translates and speaks back to the Poletec leader in that weird ass language again.

I nudge Crosshair in the side. "Keep reminding Tech about how goofy he sounds rn." Crosshair nods back, and I think he has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet.

Suddenly, blaster fire rains down from above, and I draw my other pistol with my good hand, General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber. The flying creatures take flight and fly away, and Crosshair shoots at the incoming droids, hitting one and sending it spiraling to the ground, leaving behind a trail of smoke. I manage to hit one as well with my pistol, and as the droids fly away, I keep my pistol in my hand, my other arm hanging by my side as I try not to move it.

"Not good," General Skywalker says. "If I know Tambor, he'll come after us. Us and the Poletecs, with everything he's got."

The Poletec leader starts talking shit to us again.

"What's he saying, Tech?" General Skywalker asks.

"He says that we have broken our word. We have brought the war to his village."

"You're right," Rex speaks up, stepping forward and taking off his helmet. "Tell him he's right, Tech. Tell him we didn't plan to drag his people into war. But look what the Separatists did to one of our people." He points at Echo, and all the Poletecs look at him, all gasping, looking slightly horrified.

"They took away his freedom, his humanity. They tried to turn him into a machine. The Techno Union claim they're neutral, but they have chosen sides. Now your people have to choose."

"Couldn't have said it better, Rex," General Skywalker says.

That was a good speech, Da-Rex.

Crosshair scoffs. "Let's hope it works. Because I see forces coming. More than we can handle alone."