Captain Rex Dad - Blog Posts

Our Own Choices

Chapter 13

When we reach back to the Anaxes base, I go to the medbay and get my hand fixed up. Medical droid replaces the shattered bone inside with metal and my hand's good as new. Echo's doing good as well. He's recovering from what damage he took on Skako Minor. 

So Echo has a plan about getting onto a Separatist Dreadnought and into Trench's comm vault so that he can feed Trench strategies that we already know and let the Republic retake Anaxes. I've been hanging out with the batch for a while, and I actually feel like I fit in with them. I don't get weird looks for being different.

Tech's fixing the ship while I show Hunter and Wrecker how I manage to fit 20 knives into my wrist compartment. Wrecker looks shocked, Hunter raises an eyebrow, looking slightly impressed. Then I see Tech trying to get a piece of metal loose from the engine, and I throw a knife at it, hitting the piece of metal with the hilt of the knife, and the metal piece falls to the ground, along with my knife. I head over to pick up my knife and receive a "That was unnecessary" from Tech. I smirk as I throw my knife up in the air and catch it.

Echo, Rex and General Skywalker come over just as Tech finishes the repairs.

"Tech, is everything ready?" Hunter asks.

"Yep Sarge, we are ready," Tech replies. "Still not sure how we are gonna land on that ship."

"Don't worry, Echo says he's got a plan," Rex says, putting a hand on Tech's shoulder.

"That makes me feel so much better," Tech replies, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"What do you mean by that?" Rex and I ask at the same time, slightly annoyed.

"To be blunt, his mind belonged to the Separatists until we unplugged him. We don't really know where his loyalties lie."

Good point.

"Yea. Well I know. Now get moving," Rex orders.

We walk up the ship, and I'm standing next to Crosshair and Hunter, Tech's piloting, and Wrecker's slightly restless.

"Please tell me we are blowing something up," he says, turning to face us.

"Sorry Wrecker, this is strictly stealth," General Skywalker replies.

I like that word.

Wrecker groans. "I hate that word."

Oh cmon Wrecker I thought we were getting along here

"Echo, you're up," General Skywalker says and Echo plugs his mechanical arm into the scomp link. "As soon as I plug in, I'll send a signal to the command ship."

"What type of signal are you gonna send?" Hunter asks. "Nothing that'll give us away, right?"

"As far as the droids are concerned, we're just gonna be another one of their shuttles coming in for a landing," Echo replies.

"And the regs think we take risks," Hunter says as he and Crosshair give a sideways glance at each other.

We fly for a short while, past some of the Separatist ships stationed above Anaxes.

"Sending the signal...now."

Echo I swear if you give us away I will fucking waterboard you and then carve your eyes out.

"Roger roger, Shuttle TC-159. You may approach and land." A battle droid's voice is heard over throughout the ship.

Wow looks like I don't get to torture Echo today. How sad.

Wait tf is my brain thinking rn stfu brain

Wrecker groans. "I'd still rather blow it up."

"I have a feeling you'll get your chance," Tech says.

Really hope he doesn't.

We fly past the fleet of Separatist ships and up to the Dreadnought, flying under it. The ship turns upside-down, much to my discomfort as I land head-first onto Rex's chest, and we're now on the underside of the Dreadnought.

As I stand up on the ceiling of the ship, rubbing my head, I ask, "Okay so how the fuck are we getting from the damn underside of this thing INTO it?"

The door at the bottom of the ship opens and so does the one in the Dreadnought. The ladder in the floor extends and we climb in.

I ready my pistol and knife, in case there are any clanker patrols nearby. Luckily for us, there aren't any.

I help Echo up and we walk through the corridors cautiously, with General Skywalker leading the front and Crosshair and I guarding our flank, walking backwards, on alert in case any clankers show up.

Echo, Tech , Rex and General Skywalker enter the comm vault, while Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair and I guard the door.

"So uh how's it usually like on missions without us regs?" I ask, not expecting much of a response from Crosshair. 

"Wild," Crosshair says as Hunter walks into the comm vault to check on Echo and the others. I raise an eyebrow at him, although he can't see it from under my helmet.

"Yeah, our last mission was with those Yalbec males, and they tried to eat us after I cut off the queen's stinger," Wrecker says.

"Why? They jealous that you get that Yalbec pussy and they don't?" I ask, smirking slightly.

Wrecker side-eyes Crosshair, and Crosshair replies, "Yea, I guess so."

I grin under my helmet, holding back a laugh, trying to stay focused.

Echo's taking a while, and some clankers have started to come through the corridor. Crosshair goes to take care of some of them and I follow him.

I take cover at the side of the entrance to the corridor, shooting at the B2 super battle droids with my pistol, throwing my knife at one of them and hitting it in the head. There's about 16 of them, and Crosshair gets more kills than me, which sucks.

Wrecker joins us slightly late, and by then we've almost taken out all of them. As I throw another knife at the last one, I wait to see if there are any more droids before running to go pick up my knives. 

Crosshair, Wrecker and I lead the way through the corridors, shooting droids the moment we see them, littering the corridors with bodies of broken battle droids.

Wrecker runs ahead, and when he turns the corner, some battle droids start firing at him, and he takes cover around the corner. Crosshair and I start shooting at the droids in front of us, Rex behind us doing the same, and Hunter and Tech are taking care of the remaining droids at the back.

Then, Wrecker goes to absolutely destroy the battle droids with his bare hands, and I kinda feel bad for them as I look left and right, scanning the area for more droids as I hear the terrified screams of the battle droids and the crashing of metal against the walls.

"It's all clear!" I hear him shout, and we move out from the corner, Rex half-carrying Echo.

No time to ask what happened to Echo, if Rex is carrying him, he shouldn't be dead.

Some more battle droids come from the back, and Tech alerts us to them. "More droids."

"Go. I'll buy you some time," Crosshair says, throwing up a deflector puck in his hands just to look badass, and proceeds to do an epic shot where he just throws it at the battle droid's chest before shooting it in the head, then waiting for the precise moment to fire another shot at the deflector puck which bounces off the ceiling and at all 3 battle droids' heads. 

I just stand there, frozen for a moment before walking off with the others.

"We'll meet you at the infiltration point," Rex tells Crosshair.

Wrecker groans. "He's gonna try and top me. You watch."

"And me," I say in an annoyed tone.

We start half-walking half-running through the corridors, and we reach the infiltration point.

Tech looks through his visor. "I'm picking up dozens of droids on my sensors, all heading this way."

"Hope you're not waiting on me," General Skywalker says as he runs to our position.

Wow I didn't even notice he was gone I think I literally forgot he existed.

"Now all we're missing is Crosshair," Hunter says.

Right on cue, Crosshair comes running through the corridors to our position, throwing deflector pucks literally everywhere, and stops in front of us, turning backwards and aiming his rifle, using his right shoulder to support it.

"You miss me?" 

No.

"How touching."

Then he aims at the deflector puck as the droids come marching through the hallway and he fires.

The blaster bolt deflects off the first puck and then to the second and then to like the next 30, hitting all the droids in the side, and Wrecker and I just stand there gaping at what just became the most badass shot I've ever seen.

"THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!" I protest.

"Relax Wrecker," Hunter says as he nudges Wrecker in the shoulder. "You'll top him next time."

No he won't.

And then Crosshair just comes up to us just to say "No he won't" to Wrecker's face and now I'm trying my best not to laugh again. I'm quite sure Crosshair has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet right now.

Wrecker groans.

We climb down the ladder to get back into the ship and fly off.

"I've got a present for you, Wrecker," General Skywalker hands Wrecker what looks like a detonator with a green button.

"Oh, seriously? I get to blow it up? The whole kriffing thing?" Wrecker sounds excited as he takes the detonator from General Skywalker's hand, and Crosshair and I watch.

"This..." Wrecker wipes a probably happy tear from his eye. "Is the happiest day of my life."

He presses the button and I can hear all the ships behind us going kaboom as we fly back down to Anaxes.

When we land on Anaxes, we get praised by General Windu, and General Kenobi says we've got some medals coming our way.

I take off my helmet.

"Thank you, General," Rex says as he starts to walk off.

As Echo starts to walk away, and batch and I stay behind.

"You coming?" Echo asks.

"Not really our thing," Tech replies.

"Accolades," Crosshair clarifies.

"Yea, we're just in it for the thrill," Wrecker says.

"You sure it's your thing?" Hunter asks, the question directed at both of us.

Echo looks confused. "What do you mean?"

"Your paths are different," Hunter says. "Just like ours." He motions towards the batch. Echo looks down. "If you ever feel like you don't fit in with them, well, find us."

I...don't fit in with the 501st. Or any of the other regs. And I think Rex knows that. Echo knows that. 99 did. And so did...

Don't say his name. Don't say his name.

As the batch turn around and walk up to their ship, I'm standing beside Echo as Rex walks up to us. "Those are some of the finest troopers I've ever fought alongside." He pats Echo on the shoulder. "Echo. You and I go way back. If that's where you feel your place is, then that's where you belong."

I glance at Rex. "Does that apply to me?"

Rex sighs. "Yes, ad'ika. It does." He turns around and walks away. 

He's...he's letting me...what-

I thought he would-

Nevermind. Don't worry about that right now.

Echo and I look at each other before walking slowly up to the batch, and I see Rex turning back to look at us. Echo salutes him, and then I do the same, with the batch following.

"Goodbye, ad'ika," he mouths to me.

"Goodbye, buir," I mouth back. He smiles, and so do I. 

And then Echo, the batch and I turn around and walk into their-well now it's our ship, and we fly off.

On the ship, I sit on the floor, making myself comfortable, spinning my knife, scanning the surroundings of our ship. When I finally see the toilet sign, I sigh in relief.

Thank god.

I go into the toilet to take a piss, until I realize that there's something very wrong.

"GUYS WHY IS THERE ONLY A DAMN URINAL IN HERE WHERE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING TOILET BOWL?!" 

Our Own Choices

Chapter 12

Anyways, the droids arrive soon enough, and Crosshair is camping with Echo and General Skywalker on a cliff, using the high ground, something which I never thought General Skywalker would use. (if you know you know)

I blend in with the shadows of the rocks, waiting for the droids to arrive. My sword is in my left hand, because my right hand is basically useless, and my other pistol is in the holster on my belt, I'm ready to drop my sword and use my pistol anytime I need to. Just gotta wait for the droids to come and for Wrecker to take them out.

I can feel the tension in the air. No one likes the calm before a battle. Especially not me. I prefer to watch the carnage as I slice up clankers.

I hear the droids flying in, and I don't move. I hear the rock rolling down the hill, crushing a few droids as it passes me, and the locals move in. 

They're definitely cannon fodder. 

I watch some of them get shot in the head, and some of the others being the MVPs by taking out a bunch of droids. So I start to get some kills, slicing some of the droids and Crosshair's stealing some of my kills. I'm just about to slice up a clanker when it gets shot in the head, and I look up for a moment, still holding my sword, and hold up a middle finger at him, and I receive a warning shot that whizzes past my head and shoots a droid that's behind me.

I stay close to Hunter, Tech and Wrecker and they're getting more kills than me, and Hunter's taking out droids with style. Tech rolls a stun grenade at the droids and it stuns them, and the Poletec leader runs up to us. I sling my sword back onto my back. 

I see a droid standing up and is aiming for the Poletec leader, and I quickly draw my knife and throw it at the droid's head, just as it gets headshotted by Crosshair. I see him pointing his middle finger at me and I do the same in response.

I look up at where Echo and Crosshair are at, and Echo's shooting some flying droids. I draw my pistol and start shooting at some of them, managing to hit one and Echo hitting another.

I see a walker droid landing near us, and I immediately run to take cover, splitting from the others and blending into the shadows, and I consider running up to where Echo and Crosshair are, but that would draw attention to them and also leave me exposed. Actually, maybe I should do that. Could kill Crosshair in the process. Something I would very much like to do.

The walker droid shoots a beam of explosive light at Rex, Hunter and the others and at the other Poletecs, and they all run to try and take cover, out of my line of sight. I can hear other spider droids coming, and a bunch more of those flying ones.

I run in the shadows silently, taking out a few droids here and there as I make my way to where the others are. I see Rex, Hunter and Wrecker shooting at a walker droid, so I follow them and start covering them, taking out some of the droids that are shooting at them and dodging the walker's legs that are currently trying to crush us.

I hide behind a rock and watch as General Skywalker slices up the walker. 

"That seemed to work, but how do we get up there?" Rex asks, and in response, Wrecker grabs him and throws him up to the walker's guns.

"NO NO NO NOT AGAIN-"

I'm laughing as I watch Rex get yeeted up to the gun of the walker and just hanging there.

As Wrecker goes over to Hunter and gets ready to throw him, I step forward. 

"Ladies first," I say, before Wrecker yeets me up to the top of the walker. I land on my shattered hand, which sends a wave of pain through my head and my right arm, and I hold back a scream. As I roll off the round top of the walker I stab my knife into its head and land in front of the eye of the walker, right above the gun.

Ow. My fucking pelvis. Ow.

Hunter gets thrown up as well, and the walker's head spins, and I'm clinging on for dear life with one hand. I stab my knife into the walker's eye, Hunter does the same on his side, and Rex shoots the one on his.

I see General Skywalker force-pushing the walker to crash into ours, and we go crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust. 

REALLY GENERAL? YOU SERIOUSLY HAD TO FLEX LIKE THAT AND LITERALLY ALMOST CRUSH ME?

Everything's blurry for a moment and my head hurts as I regain my sense of surroundings. The droids are retreating. Wrecker helps me up, followed by Hunter and Rex. As we all stand up, I hear the Poletecs cheering. Hunter, Wrecker and Rex take off their helmets and I try to do the same with one hand, doing so with some difficulty.

"It's hard to compete with a Jedi," Hunter says.

Soon, we head back to the ship, followed by the Poletecs, who I assume want to send us off. As we walk, Echo notices my hand swelling, a side effect of basically shattering it.

"You okay, ad'ika?" he asks.

"Just shattered my hand a bit, some surgeries will get it fixed up before the next mission," I reply.

The Poletec leader walks up to us as we stand in front of the ship.

"Thank you for helping us in our fight," General Skywalker says, and Tech translates it. The Poletec leader says some stuff in response.

"He said the Jedi will always have an ally here on Skako Minor," Tech says as the Poletecs walk away.

We start walking up the steps and enter the ship.

"You stole my kill," Crosshair says as he elbows me in the back, causing me to trip slightly and almost fall down the stairs.

I chuckle. "Too slow."

Then Crosshair goes over to Hunter and says some stuff as Rex and Echo walk into the ship. Rex sits next to me.

"Hey ad'ika, how's your hand?" he asks, and I ignore him.

"Aris..." he puts a hand on my shoulder, and I stand up and walk away from him.

Not like you give a shit anyways.

I head over to where the batch are chilling and spin my knife with my good hand. Wrecker looks impressed, and Hunter takes out his own knife and does the same. I glance at Rex for a quick moment. He's looking down, and that's when I know something's wrong. I look away.

Doesn't matter. Wrecker's impressed, and Hunter's trying to one-up me. That's the only thing that matters.

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."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 10

The Bad Batch found an entrance to the city, and contacted General Skywalker, me and Rex. It's really windy up here, it's a good thing I'm wearing a helmet because I think there's sand in the wind. General Skywalker doesn't look very happy, of course he isn't. Sand's coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere, just like Crosshair. At least, when I finally get a chance to stab him. I kinda wanna rip his guts out while he's still alive, no one talks shit about Echo and makes it through the night.

"We're in business, General. Tech regained Echo's signal," Hunter says as we reach them. "It's coming from this tower. How's it going Tech?"

Tech doesn't reply, he's busy hacking the door, and in a few moments, the door opens.

"Sorry it took so long."

Shut up and stop flexing.

"Hey Crosshair, go and check it out," Hunter says and Crosshair walks into the place. 

"Yea, it's a lift."

No need to state the obvious.

"Well we already knew that," Tech says as we all walk in.

"Wait wait wait, a lift?" I hear Wrecker's sounding a bit scared. "How far up are we going?"

"Don't worry Wrecker, I'll hold your hand," Hunter replies, receiving a shoulder knock from Wrecker. "Hey cut it out Sarge. Just gimme some droids to crush."

The lift door closes and we ascend.

"Remember, this is a stealth mission. No blasting, no blowing things up. Nobody knows we're here," General Skywalker says and the doors open, revealing a bunch of droids, and the batch and I run in, blasting the remaining droids that Wrecker hasn't destroyed or thrown off the building.

Hunter and Crosshair take out the ones near the edge, while Tech and I take out the ones guarding the hallway. I manage to get 3 of them with my sword as Tech rolls and takes cover behind the crates. 

Some more droids come out from the hallway and Wrecker starts taking care of them, running over to the 2 droids at my place, but I take them out with a shot to the head in one and I throw my knife at the other, hitting it square in the head.

Once they all get taken out, Wrecker starts shouting "YEAHHHH" like he just won a battle royale solo in the legendary rank in Call of Duty.

Shit don't think about that. Anyways, cringe.

I cringe slightly and all of us stare at Wrecker with that "tf bro" look under our helmets.

"Uh sorry. I just got excited," he says, walking over to us.

"I've still got a lock on Echo's signal," Tech says.

"Alright men, let's hunt some droids," Hunter says and we walk into the hallway. We walk for about a minute before we reach a door, Hunter's the first to look out, and then signals to Rex, and they go out and blast the droids. The rest of us walk out.

"Where exactly is Echo's signal coming from?" General Skywalker asks.

"Strange. I just lost the signal," Tech says as Rex takes off his helmet.

"What? How can that be? There's no 'atmospheric disturbances' up here."

"Well, I have a new theory. I'm surprised I did not consider it earlier." Tech sounds like an AI. "The signal is only traceable during data transmissions. So until Echo dispenses more intel, I cannot pick up the signal."

"Okay, we're splitting up," General Skywalker says. "Search every door. If someone finds Echo, contact the others. We go in together, just in case there's trouble."

So Crosshair and I follow General Skywalker while the others follow Rex, running off in the other direction. I'm only following them because maybe I'll get the chance to rip Crosshair's eye out. 

General Skywalker takes one door, Crosshair takes another, and I take the furthest one, walking into the dimly-lit corridor, full of crates. 

"Echo?" I call out, and there's a slight echo throughout the room. No pun intended. There's no reply, so I turn my heat visor on, and I don't see anything, so I head out and check on General Skywalker, Crosshair is there as well.

A droid is just about to hump/blast General Skywalker and Crosshair fires a shot at the same time I throw my knife at the droid. The knife hits the droid's head and the shot hits the body of the droid. 

General Skywalker whips around, lightsaber ignited, as Crosshair lowers his rifle. General Skywalker picks up my knife from the droid's head, throwing it back at me over Crosshair's shoulder, and retracts his lightsaber. I catch the knife by the handle and sheath it back into my wrist compartment.

"Nice throw," General Skywalker says as we walk out.

"Nice shot," I say to Crosshair, and he gives me that downwards nod of respect.

HELL YEA

We head to where the others are, General Skywalker leading the way. We see a bunch of droids surrounding them, and General Skywalker force pushes some of the droids out of the way, slicing them in half with his lightsaber. I run ahead and steal some kills from Hunter with my sword, pistol in the other hand. 

Crosshair shoots from behind, and then doing that Call of Duty slide, shooting 2 more droids in the process and hitting one with his rifle before shooting it.

General Skywalker finishes up the last droid, and then there's a moment of silence and we all look around, before more droids come from the hallway, blasting at us. I duck as a blaster bolt whizzes over my head, going to take cover where Hunter, Rex and Tech are at.

"GUYS SHOULDN'T WE LIKE OPEN THAT DOOR OR SMTH," I shout as I blast a few droids that are coming from the opposite hallway.

"Tech, open that door for Rex!" General Skywalker commands, and Tech gets to work. Rex and I run to the door as it opens and we find ourselves in a room lit by yellow floor lamps, electricity crackling at some pillars, and there's a control panel below what looks like one of those escape pods.

"This doesn't look good," I comment as Tech goes to press some buttons on the control panel, which causes some white gas to come out of the pod. "I'm definitely picking up a life-form in there," Tech says as he presses more buttons. "It seems to be a stasis chamber. I think I can get it open." 

And then when the stasis chamber opens, a bunch of white gas flows out, followed by what I can barely recognize as Echo, connected to the thing by wires, hanging out, his eyes lifeless. He looks almost droidlike, with all the machinery connected to him. I can almost hear him transmitting "CT-1409", and I resist the urge to back away, creeped out by Echo's dead-looking eyes.

"Echo," Rex says, before standing on the control panel and disconnecting a wire from Echo's legs, and carrying him, setting him down on the ground. I now have a clear view of him, his right arm has become a prosthetic one, it looks like the machinery that the droids use to open doors in the republic ships. 

"Tech, we gotta get him outta here," Rex says. "Figure out how to unplug him from...from this mess."

We both take off our helmets and look down at Echo. His skin is really pale, and I can see Rex's horrified expression, while I keep a neutral one, I'll deal with it when I'm alone. "What have they done to you?" Rex sounds like he just lost a battle royale solo when he was one of the last 2 guys remaining and got sniped.

"We-we have to get to the shuttle to escape the Citadel...no...I'll go first..." Echo's voice is weak, and Rex puts a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, and I do the same. "Echo-"

"No...no...no..."

"Echo, it's Rex. I'm here," Rex says, and Echo's shaking slightly, breathing heavily. I know how it feels like. The choking feeling as memories of injuries are recounted. 

"Rex? You-you came back for me," Echo says, grabbing Rex's arm. I kneel down next to his side.

Of course we did. We don't leave our own behind. 

"Yes, yes I did," Rex replies, a concerned expression on his face, staring down at Echo. 

"What-what happened? Where am I?" 

"It's okay Echo. You're safe now," Rex says, holding Echo's arm reassuringly. "Just sit tight, trooper. You're going home."

He motions for Tech to come over and try to help disconnect Echo, and my hand's still on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

You're gonna be okay, Echo. You're gonna be okay.

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."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 7

It's been a few weeks now, and I can almost fully function again. I've just managed to hold a pistol steady without my arm shaking, and my knife skills are slightly worse than before but I can probably survive out in the field. Rex still hasn't let me go out on missions yet, he says I have to fully recover first, even though I already have.

When Rex and the 501st come back from the battle of Ringo Vinda, but when I look around for Fives he's not there. Rex says he's on Kamino watching over this clone trooper called Tup whose inhibitor chip malfunctioned during the battle. 

I'm also biologically 18 years old now, so Rex allows me to go to the clone bar now, maybe I'll hangout with Fives there when he gets back. I usually go to there in the nights, I occasionally see Kix and Jesse there.

It's been a few days, and Fives still hasn't come back from Kamino. Kix just told me that people said that Fives tried to kill the Chancellor, and he gives me coordinates on where to find Fives. He says Rex and General Skywalker will be there as well. I probably won't be able to keep out of sight anyways, with a Jedi there and everything.

I see Rex and General Skywalker walk through the place, it's kinda dark so General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber and it casts a blue glow around the area, I head towards them, almost completely silent.

I think Rex hears my footsteps cause the moment I walk up behind him, he whips around and points his pistols at me. General Skywalker does the same, lightsaber in hand and probably ready to slice me in half.

"Oh, great," Rex groans. 

"Heyyyy captain, General, Kix gave me the coordinates to come here as well," I say awkwardly. 

"I thought I told you not to go out on missions until you fully recovered?!" Rex says, lowering his pistols. He's definitely gonna give me a lecture later. Rex and General Skywalker turn around again and scan the area for Fives, I stand behind them doing the same.

"Fives? Fives, we're here," General Skywalker calls out. "Cmon out, we just wanna talk to you."

"Fives?" I take off my helmet so that he can recognize my voice. "Where tf u bro?"

"General Skywalker." I hear Fives' voice, but I can't pinpoint where exactly he is. "Thank you...thank you for trusting me." He doesn't sound good. "Have you come without troops?"

"We have," General Skywalker says, he and Rex and both alert, and I do the same, my pistol in one hand and my knife in the other. (It's a new knife that Rex got me, it has the same pattern as my sword, much to my delight)

"Put down your weapons then!" Fives sounds slightly panicked. 

"I don't think so, Fives," General Skywalker says.

"Please sir! Please, I'm unarmed."

General Skywalker nods at me and Rex and I drop my pistol and knife on the floor. General Skywalker retracts his lightsaber as well.

Rex puts his pistols down on a nearby crate and notifies Fives. 

"What are we here for, Fives?" General Skywalker sounds cautious.

"I need your help."

"I know you do. We know you're not well. It's been rough for you, these past couple of days."

"I'm not crazy!" Fives sounds kinda desperate. "Please...please just-just hear...what I have to say." He's breathing heavily, definitely been drugged or injured.

"I don't think someone like you would ever manage to go insane, considering you play sniper in Call of Duty and on mobile sometimes," I try lightening the atmosphere a bit, the dim light in the area is making me feel uneasy.

"We're here to help you Fives, just come with us," General Skywalker says, and we walk in the general direction that we think Fives is at. "Just let us take you back to the temple."

Suddenly, a ray shield comes down from above and surrounds all 3 of us, preventing us from being able to get anywhere. General Skywalker bangs a fist against the ray shield before Fives comes out from behind one of the crates. 

"I just need you to listen to me...please!"

"I'm not really sure we have any other choice," General Skywalker responds, crossing his arms.

"We're listening to you, Fives," I assure him, I don't need him getting anymore mentally unstable than he is right now.

"I was framed! Because I know the truth, the truth about a plot. A master deception."

"By who?" Rex steps forwards a bit.

"Well there's a sinister plot, and it works against the Jedi! I have proof of it! I can prove that everything I know is true beyond a shadow of a doubt!" Fives holds his head in his hands at one point, he's definitely been drugged, I don't know by who, but it feels like he's telling the truth, and someone's trying to get him not to.

"Show me the evidence," General Skywalker says.

Fives holds the left side of his head with his hand. "The...evidence...is..in here," he points towards the left side of his head. "I-it's in here. It's in all of us, every clone!"

"What is it?" Rex asks.

"It's in all of us?!" I ask.

"Organic chips built into our genetic code..." Fives puts a hand to his head again. "To make us do whatever someone wants, even kill the Jedi." Fives takes a step forward, pointing at the left side of his head again. "It's all in here."

General Skywalker glances sideways at Rex, and Rex puts a hand to the back of his neck, I speak up. "Fives-"

"Let's just get you some help first, then we can review everything. It'll be okay, Fives, we'll sort this out," General Skywalker cuts me off. It's definitely not gonna help the situation. 

"YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!" Fives shouts, and I can hear it in his voice, he's desperate for someone to believe him.

"Fives, we are listening to you, we only want to help," Rex tries to calm Fives down. 

"How do I know you're not tricking me? How do I know...that it won't be a trap? The chancellor was trying to kill me, I-I promise you that!"

"Fives, why would I be here if it was a trap, I may be dumb sometimes in battle royale but I'm not that dumb," I say, trying to reassure him, I'm not really doing a good job.

"The chancellor?" General Skywalker asks.

"He's in on it!" Fives says, putting a hand to his head again. "I don't know to what extent, but I know he orchestrated much of this. He told me in the medical bay!"

"He told you?" General Skywalker sounds slightly more aggressive now. "When you tried to assassinate him? You have gone too far, Fives. The chancellor is incapable of what you claim."

"General, you're not really helping here," I tell him. 

The popular belief isn't always the correct one.

"He is!" Fives protests. "I swear to you, General, you have no idea-"

Suddenly, Coruscant Guard troopers appear from behind the crates, pointing their blasters at Fives. "Stand down soldier. STAND DOWN! GET ON YOUR KNEES!"

"No, no, STAY BACK!" Fives looks at Rex's pistols from the side.

"Don't do it, don't do it soldier!"

"FIVES DON'T DO IT OR I'LL STEAL UR KILLS IN FUCKING BATTLE ROYALE!" I shout, I know he hates it when I steal his kills, and if he doesn't stand down now he's gonna get shot.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Fives takes one of Rex's pistols and points it at the Coruscant Guards, and Commander Fox shoots him in the chest.

"FIVES!" I shout, banging on the ray shield, slamming my body against it desperately as Fives drops the pistol, breathing heavily, and drops to the ground. It's like finding out Echo's dead all over again. That sickening feeling in my stomach as I see his body, the way my insides tense up, I never wanted to experience that again, but here I am now. 

"Fives!" Rex shouts, and General Skywalker orders the Coruscant Guards to turn the ray shield off. Rex starts banging against the ray shield with me, he's calling out Fives' name again.

One of the Coruscant Guard troopers shoots the ray shield generator and Rex and I run to Fives' side.

"Fives...brother..." Rex kneels down next to him, and I kneel beside him. "GET A MEDIC," Rex and I shout at the same time, but no one moves, they know it's too late, and I know as well, I just don't accept it yet.

Fives' breathing is erratic, he's not gonna make it-no he is gonna make it, he is gonna make it...

"Kid...? Rex...?" Fives' voice is half-weak. "Fives?" Rex asks. "This...it's...bigger than any of us...anything...I could've imagined..."

"Save your strength Fives, we'll get you to the medbay," I say, and Rex looks at me with that look in his eyes, I know Fives is not gonna make it, but there's still a slim chance right? I'll take any chance I can get.

"I never meant...to..." Rex holds Fives close to his ear so that he can hear him. "I only wanted to do my duty..."

Fives' breathing is heavy. 

"Fives? Stay with me Fives. Fives?" Rex sounds desperate. 

"FIVES IF YOU DIE...I'M GONNA KILL YOU," I hold back my tears, can't show weakness in front of the other troopers. 

"The mission...the nightmares...they're...finally...over." And then his body goes limp as he closes his eyes, and Rex shakes him by the shoulders. "Fives? No, Fives, cmon Fives, stay with me, stay with me, Fives, Fives, don't go..."

I shake Fives by the shoulders. "Fives? W-wake up! Please, stay with me, cmon man, don't give up on me like this, we still gotta keep our top 5000 in legendary rank until end of season 4 of COD, remember?" I wipe my eyes with the corner of my sleeve. "Fives?"

Rex sighs and puts Fives' body down on the ground, his head lowered. General Skywalker puts a hand on his shoulder, and Rex looks at me, putting a hand on my shoulder, pulling me close to him. 

I stare down at Fives' body blankly, trying hard not to cry. I look up at Commander Fox, the bitch that shot Fives, and then I look at my knife on the floor not too far away, I clench my fist, all thoughts cleared from my mind except one.

Kill him.

I stand up from the floor, moving over to pick up my pistol and knife. I clip the pistol to my belt.

Kill him.

I run over to Fox, my knife in hand, shouting, "FUCK YOU," letting all that grief for Echo, Hevy, and now Fives, out on him, trying to stab my knife through the crevices in his armor, aiming for the neck, getting a good hit on the face as Fox tries to throw me off of him. The other troopers aim their blasters at me as Rex runs over and pulls me back.

"Kid...kid! Stop!" I can hear the desperation in his voice, I struggle against his grip, knife still in hand, trying to reach Fox.

"LET...ME...AT...HIM..." my voice comes out lower than expected, I'm seething with rage right now, my mind still telling me to kill Fox and avenge Fives-

One of the troopers fires a stun bolt at me and my entire body goes numb and everything goes black.

When I wake up, I'm in a Republic prison cell, and Rex walks in, his expression grim, he doesn't look happy. I crack my neck a bit, slightly sore from the stun bolt.

Rex grabs me by the shoulders. "What were you thinking?!"

"I WAS THINKING TO KILL HIM, WHY DID YOU STOP ME?! I WANTED TO AVENGE OUR BROTHER, YOU-" I stop myself before I swear at him.

Rex sighs. "Look kid, you can't just attack a trooper like that and expect nothing to happen. I managed to get them to let you off the hook this time, but you're grounded."

"WHAT?! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" 

"Yes I can. No more going on missions until I say so, and the other troopers will be keeping an eye on you." His stare is blank, yet stern, and I know the blank part is because he's trying to get over what happened to Fives.

"Fives..." I hold my head in my hands as everything comes rushing back. My stomach tightens again, it's like a choking feeling, the grief, it feels like I can't breathe, but I don't allow myself to cry freely, just looking down at the floor and closing my eyes tightly.

"Let's go." Rex grabs my arm and drags me out of the cell, back to the barracks and my room, and he doesn't say anything as he closes the door behind him.

I move to a corner of my room and curl up into a ball, finally letting everything out, crying loudly, burying my face in my knees, I can't stop until there's no more tears left to cry, and then all that comes out from me in the next few hours is just dry sobs, and I punch the wall a few times, my knuckles bleeding, but I don't care.

Fives...

After hours and hours of crying, I take out my datapad and go into Call of Duty. I get to my loadouts for battle royale and multiplayer, and I change the weapons in my loadout to the ones I perfectly memorized just to beat him every time in 1v1.

I change all my loadouts to the ones Fives uses.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 6

Everything's blurry when I wake up. I see bright lights shining onto me, and when I turn my head to the left I see some medical droids scanning me. I try to move, but my body won't listen. I'm panicking.

Why won't my body move?

The only thing that I can move right now is my head, and that hurts about as much as the rest of my body. I look around the medbay, there's no one else here.

Echo...

I see Rex walk into the medbay, and he takes a seat beside the bed I'm in, and he grabs my hand. He doesn't make eye contact with me. 

He looks worried. Did I make him angry? 

I look up at him. "...Dad?" My voice is shaky, it's just slightly louder than a whisper.

"Hey ad'ika." Rex looks up at me. "You had me worried over there."

Please don't give me a lecture, I don't think my brain can handle this shit right now.

I think Rex can read my thoughts, because he gives me a tired smile. "I'm just glad that you're safe, kid."

"Why can't I move?" I try to move again, but it's not working. I'm not going to be like this forever, right? This is gonna go away...right?

Rex sighs. "You took a pretty bad hit back there at the Citadel, it's a miracle that you're still alive. You have some bruising on your spine that's causing temporary paralysis, according to the medical droid over there, but it'll go away eventually."

He forgot to add the "I think" at the end of the sentence.

"Where's Echo?"

Rex sighs again. "Kid...Echo's gone."

I try to raise my head up from the bed, but a sharp pain shoots through my skull and I wince, resting my head back onto the bed. Rex gives me a slightly concerned look.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU GO BACK FOR HIM?!" I raise my voice as loud as I can, which isn't very loud.

Rex looks down. "Kid, we couldn't go back for him, there was no chance of saving him."

"THEN WHY DID YOU SAVE ME? WHY ME AND NOT HIM?!"

"Kid-"

"HE'S THE ARC TROOPER NOT ME! HE'S MORE VALUABLE, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HIM?!"

"Kid, we couldn't find his body. He's completely gone."

I rest my head back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "How long was I out for?"

"4 days," Rex replies, his grip on my hand is still tight. "Medical droid's been taking out shrapnel from your body, they're almost done, but they're gonna remove the last bits in a while, okay?"

I nod. "Where's my armor?"

"It's in the barracks, don't worry about it."

"My knife?"

"You lost it during the blast, we'll get you a new one once you're healed, don't worry about it."

I fall silent, and Rex and I just stay there for a while, until Rex stands up. "They're gonna take the last bits of shrapnel outta you, I'll come back in a bit when they're done, alright ad'ika?"

I nod, smiling slightly.

"Be careful with her," Rex says to the medical droid, before leaving the medbay.

The medical droid gives me the anesthesia to knock me out before the surgery, and it feels like only seconds after that I wake up.

 For the next few months, I'm forced to stay in the medbay. Rex visits me at least once a day, if he's on a mission he usually gives me a transmission. Sometimes Fives comes along with Rex, and they both tell me stories about their missions, and the exciting stuff that happened. 

Fives also made it to the top 5000 players in Legendary rank in Call of Duty, and now I'm at a lower rank than him, which is definitely not something I like.

I can barely move my body, but I can move my fingers slightly. 

Fives and Rex are always telling me that I'll recover soon, but I've been starting to lose hope. It's already been a few months, and I almost no better than I was when I arrived at the medbay.

It's so boring in the daytime, I have nothing to do, so I just stare at the ceiling, thinking of storylines, I've made up quite a few. There's this one where I crossed over this world and Ninjago and the movie Pacific Rim, where General Skywalker and Commander Tano piloted one of the giant robots called Jaegers along with my original character and some of the other people from Ninjago that Rex told me about. I even made up names for the Jaegers. Titan Grave, Striker Phoenix, Dark Interceptor, and Challenger Rex (Named after you know who). I even made up a name for the story, it's called Cancelling the Apocalypse.

Sometimes I think about what it would be like if Echo survived, but I try not to think about it too much. Would he be in my situation, paralyzed like me? It would be nice to have someone to talk to in the medbay.

The nights aren't any more enjoyable than the day. I always get nightmares of the explosion, and I keep waking up in the middle of the night, sweating. Rex seems to have noticed this, and he says that I have dark circles under my eyes, and he always asks if I get enough sleep at night.

One time, Rex and Fives came back from a battle on Umbara, and they told me about this Jedi General who was making men die on purpose, and how they killed the Jedi. 

Rex and Fives stay with me through the night.  As usual, I wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, breathing heavily. Unfortunately, Rex and Fives aren't heavy sleepers, and the moment they hear me wake up, they do the same.

Rex squeezes my hand gently. "You're okay kid, it's just a nightmare." I nod, still sweating, squeezing his hand back with the limited movement of my fingers.

A few weeks pass, and I've been able to move my limbs slightly, and I can turn my body now. I can sit up shakily in my bed, sometimes being able to slowly type out my stories on a holo-pad that Fives gave me, it takes me about a few hours to write a chapter. I tried playing Call of Duty ranked once, but my fingers can't move fast, and my team lost.

I've been discharged out of the medbay, and I'm in a wheelchair, I can't walk. Rex says that I've visibly grown thinner, I have no appetite. I don't really wear my armor anymore, I'm mostly just wearing my hoodie.

Rex has been trying to get me to walk again, but it's not working. I've managed to take a few shaky steps, and that's with my arms supporting me. My arms aren't doing any better either, I've lost so much muscle, I can barely support my own weight with them.

I keep asking Rex whether I can get back to physical training, but he keeps saying that I gotta recover fully first, which is annoying as hell.

A few more weeks pass, every day Rex or Fives or sometimes even Commander Tano try and help me to walk again, but every time, after a few steps, I fall to the ground, shaking.

I don't wear my helmet around her anymore, I trust her enough to not snitch. Not that Rex even allows me to wear my helmet anyways.

Rex comes back from Onderon in a few days, and as usual, he brings me to the training area and lets me use the wall to support myself and try to walk.

"What's the point of this?" I ask Rex as he extends a hand to help me stand. 

"Ad'ika..."

I stare blankly ahead, as usual. "We've been doing this for weeks, and I can barely take a few steps without collapsing. Not to mention, I can barely hold a gun steady, and ECHO'S GONE."

"Kid...just trust me on this, okay?"

I roll my eyes and grab his hand, helping myself up and leaning against the wall. My legs are shaking, but at least they've been shaking less for the past few days.

 If you wanna get back to the field, you better fucking be able to walk, how else are we gonna avenge Echo?

I think about this every time I try to walk. I feel the urge to kick clanker ass, I wanna make them pay for what they did to Echo. 

I manage to take the first few steps with one hand against the wall, supporting myself, like usual, and then now comes the part where my foot doesn't wanna move forward and I start feeling the resistance, it's less than usual today.

I see Rex staring at me from the side. I take a few deep breaths. 

Just get this over and done with...

I take a shaky step, closing my eyes and trying to relax. I can almost see the explosion that killed Echo and made me like this, I clench my fist, shutting my eyes tighter.

I take another shaky step, and take my hand off the wall. My legs are shaking more. 

Fuck my legs bro.

I force myself to take a few more steps, it feels like my legs are gonna give way soon, I lean against the wall, I can feel sweat running down my forehead.

I clench my fist again, and force myself to release my grip on the wall and take a few more steps. They feel lighter than the first few, and it's getting easier now, still slightly shaky.

I glance at Rex, he nods at me, and I take a few more steps, less shaky now. I speed up my steps, they're getting easier and easier, and soon I'm running around the place, feeling the wind in my hair, laughing for the first time in months.

And then I run over to Rex and hug him, and he's slightly startled and pats me on the back awkwardly, before hugging me back after a few moments.

"Thanks dad," I bury my head into his shoulder.

"Your welcome, ad'ika."

I can feel him smiling, and he hugs me tighter.

Our Own Choices

Chapter 5

Captured! Returning from a perilous assignment in the Outer Rim, Jedi Master Even Piell's cruiser has fallen under attack and been boarded. Seeking vital information he carries about secret hyperspace lanes called the Nexus Route, Separatist forces have taken him alive. Now, the Jedi are preparing a stealth mission into the heart of Separatist space in an effort to rescue Master Piell from the deadly prison known as the Citadel.

I wait for Fives and Echo to come back to the barracks from their briefing of breaking into that maximum security prison which I am so hyped up to break into. I can't sneak into the venting system, because I remember someone trying that before and it didn't really go too well for them. I've grown like 10cm, so I've had to adjust my armor to fit my new height.

I receive a holo-transmission from Rex. He's somewhere on a jedi cruiser or probably on another mission, but I'm stuck here on Coruscant. 

I open the transmission and open the hologram on the floor. Rex's image appears in front of me, he's like half a head taller than me. 

"Hey kid," Rex takes off his helmet.

"Hey dad, please don't tell me this is something about the bad batch minifigures that I've been building."

"What bad batch minifigures?"

"Nevermind. I'm guessing this is something about the Citadel mission?"

Rex nods. "Look kid, I know you wanna go, but this isn't the place to get experience. There's a high chance that you'll get killed, and I can't be responsible for that. So-"

I groan, putting a hand to my forehead. "You said I was good enough to be an ARC trooper, why can't I go?"

"Kid, it's too dangerous, and I can't have you getting killed. You're not going. That's an order."

"Dad please-"

"You're not going, and that's final. Fives and Echo will make sure you stay here." 

The hologram turns off, and I lean against the wall, sighing.

Fives and Echo walk into the barracks.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Sorry kid, but you can't-"

I roll my eyes and put on my helmet. "Yea, I know, I know, I can't go on that prison break in that I've been wanting to go on for days now."

"Yea, sorry kid," Fives says. "Rex told us to make sure you wouldn't come."

I glare at him from under my helmet. "And you're gonna defy the bro code just because Rex said so?"

Fives and Echo look at each other. "Sorry kid, you ain't coming with us. On the bright side, Commander Tano isn't going either, so you can hangout with her while we're out."

I sigh and head to the hangar with them, and go up to Commander Tano, who's talking with another Jedi. My anxiety's rising, I hate talking to Jedi so much. So I just stand at the side and wait for my chance to speak up.

"Master Plo? May I speak with you?" Commander Tano asks the other Jedi.

"What is it, little 'Soka?" the older Jedi replies.

"It's about the mission. Master Skywalker doesn't want me to go."

"Rex doesn't want me to go either," I speak up.

"That is their choice," the Jedi says.

Commander Tano sits down on the wing of the ship that the other Jedi is fixing up and I sit down next to her.

"I know, but I think he's being overly protective. He's picking and choosing which assignments I can be a part of," Commander Tano says.

"I know right, Rex literally does the same thing to me, even though he says I'm good enough to be an ARC trooper along with Echo and Fives," I complain.

"He is your master," the other Jedi says.

"Yes...but it's not for him to decide when and how I should put my life in danger. That should be my choice." 

"So after the others get carbon-frozen, they won't know if we go with them, and we could just sneak onboard," I suggest, and the other Jedi nods at us.

After the others get carbon-frozen, we get in and get carbon-frozen ourselves. It is definitely not a pleasant experience.

Soon enough, we get unfrozen by the droids. I see Rex getting unfrozen next to me as well.

"Hey kid..." Rex groans as he gets unfrozen.

"Hey dad," I reply, cracking my neck slightly.

"What are you doing here?!" Rex folds his arms.

"Fives, do I have carbon sickness or is that Aris," Echo asks as he cracks his neck. I walk up to him and slap him in the face. "Does that seem like carbon sickness to you?"

Echo rubs the place where I slapped him, chuckling. "Good to see ya, kid."

Rex grabs my arm and turns me to face him. "I gave you a direct order not to come!"

"I got orders from General Plo Koon and Commander Tano to come anyways," I fold my arms, smirking, putting my helmet on before any other troopers can see me. Rex rolls his eyes.

"Welcome aboard, kid," Fives and Echo clap me on the back and I smile slightly.

We walk to a ledge which overlooks the lava. Definitely don't wanna fall into that. General Skywalker takes out some binoculars and scans the building.

"I see the entry point," he reports.

"You were right," Cody says. "The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks."

"Yes, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. With ascension cables and a steel grip," General Kenobi says.

I already don't like this idea. Burning in lava seems like a painful way to go down, and I already had a problem with climbing that ledge back on the Rishi outpost, I'm starting to regret my decision of coming along.

"I don't think so," General Skywalker says.

"What do you mean?"

He looks through his binoculars again. "Electro-mines. There's nowhere to put a grappling hook at that height. And we hit one of those, the mission's over. They'll know we're here."

"I suppose that means we free-climb it," Rex says, and I look at him.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, kid, if you fall, I'll catch you."

We continue walking along the ledge and manage to make our way to the bottom of whatever shit we need to climb.

I'm climbing behind Rex, and Echo and Fives are below me. Rex constantly looks down to check if I'm still alive. 

I really hope Echo actually meant what he said because my arms are burning and I'm losing my grip on the rocks.

The electro-mines are sparking with electricity, and I really hope that doesn't hit me or I'm definitely gonna die. My speed of climbing starts to slow down, and Echo and Fives are almost overtaking me, Rex is really far ahead.

"Cmon kid, we're right behind you, don't worry," Echo says below me. I'm breathing heavily inside my helmet, my hair's wet with sweat, it's so warm in there. The wind isn't helping either.

And then I lose my grip and I slip off the rock, and I'm thinking "Oh shit" until Echo catches me and helps me up.

"Thanks..." I'm breathing heavily, I think my heart rate just spiked up after that. I'm shaking from the adrenaline rush, and it takes me a few moments to get back to climbing.

I see everyone stop, and I stop as well. I look up and see a few droids on the platform above me, and I cling to the rock as close as I can, holding my breath, hoping that they won't hear any of us.

And then everyone starts climbing again, and I finally take a breath, pushing myself up to the next grip I can find, I'm below Commander Tano now, don't worry I'm not looking up her skirt, although I would really like to, I heard General Skywalker and General Kenobi say they told her that space underwear wasn't a thing so every time you looked up her skirt you could see her orange-

Anyways.

I hear General Kenobi saying they locked the door, and that it's ray shielded, and General Skywalker's kinda freaking about how it wasn't part of the plan.

Commander Tano climbs up and sees an opening up there and reports it to us.

"We know, they're ventilation ducts, but they're far too small for us to gain access," General Skywalker says.

"Too small for you maybe, but I think I can squeeze through," Commander Tano says.

"I could as well," I speak up.

Rex nudges me in the side and gives me the "don't you dare do it or I'll kill you" head tilt. 

"He can come along as well," Commander Tano points to me. 

General Skywalker nods at us and we climb to the ventilation duct. Commander Tano reaches up there in no time, opening the cover to the vent duct, while I'm struggling to climb up there.

When I reach the platform where the vent duct is, she helps me up. 

"Thanks," I'm panting, breathing heavily. Then Ahsoka slips inside the vent duct and I follow behind her. She looks down from the cramped space to check if there are any droids, before jumping down. I follow her, keeping my pistols drawn to cover her if there are any droids as she opens the ray shield.

I see the others climb up and I help Fives and Echo up. 

"Good job kid," Echo's breathing heavily as well.

"See Rex? I can handle myself," I fold my arms and look at him. I don't call him "dad" here for obvious reasons.

I see the last trooper reaching the platform, but then he slips, and starts to fall. I extend my grappling hook out to him, hoping that he can grab it in time, but he can't, and gets absolutely destroyed by an electro-mine.

The alarm starts to sound.

"They know we're here," General Kenobi says.

So we start running along the hallways, checking the corners to see if there are any droids.

"Take out their surveillance," General Skywalker says, and I shoot one of the security cameras with my pistol. And then some stuff from the ceiling start shooting down at us, but the boys and I take them out quite quickly.

And then, as I stand behind Rex, I hear someone shouting that the walls are electrified, and we run towards cover. I see one clone left behind, and I extend out my hand to grab him, but the wall gets him first and I get an electric shock in my hand. I shake it away, it feels like it's burning but I don't care, and I run towards the trooper who got caught in the electric wall and check for a pulse. There's nothing.

"We must keep moving," General Kenobi says, and I reluctantly leave the trooper behind and follow the others.

Soon, we reach the room where the dude we're supposed to rescue is kept, and we start blasting the droids inside the moment we open the door.

Some of us stand around the room while the others guard the door, and I hear the Jedi dude that we just saved talk shit with the Generals about how we gotta rescue his captain for some reason.

So we continue running through the hallways, checking to see if there are any droids. Suddenly, 3 commando droids appear at one end of the hallway, and a few more at the other end. I stay close to Rex, Fives and Echo as the Jedi draw their lightsabers. I draw my sword and hold my pistol in my other hand.

The droids start firing at us, the Jedi are blocking the blaster bolts with their lightsabers as the droids start jumping off the walls, they're getting closer, and one of them gets close enough and pins a trooper to the wall, and before I can reach him he's getting stabbed. 

I throw my knife at the commando droid who's still stabbing the trooper, and it hits the droid in the head, and I slice it in half with my sword to make sure it's dead. I see another commando droid behind Echo, so I shoot it with my pistol.

The Jedi slice the remaining droids with their lightsabers and Fives gently punches me in the shoulder. "You stole my kill."

I chuckle a bit. "Too slow?"

"We need to keep moving," General Kenobi says, and we start walking through the hallway again.

Suddenly, I hear some high-pitched noise, it's hurting my ears, so I cover them, even through the helmet I can still hear the sound, and all our weapons get attracted up to the ceiling, including the sword on my back and my hidden knife, carrying me up to the ceiling as well. Anakin's up there with me as well, attracted to the ceiling by his hand.

And then some electricity goes through the ceiling, going to both me and General Skywalker, it feels like my body is burning, it's shaking so much, and then it stops, and I'm trying my best not to black out, everything's spinning, everything sounds muffled...

I reach for my knife and General Skywalker reaches for his lightsaber, and I'm about to throw it at the place where the electricity comes out of, and then electricity comes out of it again. The burning feeling comes back, I'm losing the feeling in my legs, and my body...

I throw the knife at the electricity generator as General Skywalker cuts it with his lightsaber, and we fall to the ground, I'm trying so hard not to black out right now, everything's blurry...

The rest of the action happens in a blur until Echo and Rex help me up. "You good kid?" I can hear the concern in their voices. The feeling in my legs starts to come back and I nod.

"Yea I'm fine."

And then we start running through the hallways again, reaching the place where the other prisoners are kept. The Jedi handle the droids and General Kenobi suggests we split up.

Fives, Echo, Rex, some others and I follow General Skywalker and Commander Tano.

General Skywalker's looking at the holo-map, and then suddenly plunges his lightsaber into a wall, cutting a circle through it.

"Everybody in," he says.

Echo, Fives and I push through the circle that General Skywalker cut through the wall, and we find ourselves in one of the old fortress tunnels.

Commander Tano goes off to check the tunnels.

"The tunnel's clear," she reports.

"Looks like Obi-Wan's distraction worked," General Skywalker says. "Things seem to be going as planned."

"Don't jinx it," I tell him.

"It's when things do not go as planned that concerns me," the captain dude says. "What then?"

I go over to Echo and Fives and stand around with them for a bit. There's still a slight tingling feeling in my arm from the electricity just now. I can still hear my heart pounding in my chest, I gotta calm down.

Echo seems to notice this, and he puts a hand on my shoulder. I flinch slightly, but relax after a moment. "Thanks," I tell him.

Then we put the piece of metal that we pushed through just now back into the wall and head off.

We walk along the narrow sides of the tunnel which overlook the lava, making sure to be careful not to fall in. General Skywalker goes to guard the flank while I walk in between Fives and Echo.

"So uh, what are yall gonna do when we get back?" I ask them, to break the silence a bit.

"I'm probably gonna go get a drink at the cantina," Fives says. "And maybe Echo would come along as well."

"Can I come?" I ask.

"Nah kid, you're too young to be drinking alcoholic stuff, you're not 18 yet," Echo says.

"Aw cmon," I protest. "Please???? I'm like 16 years old biologically, I can handle it."

"Sorry kid, can't go till you're 18," Fives says. "I heard you're working on writing that story of yours about our missions and stuff, maybe you could do that after the mission."

"But I wanna hangout with yall," I protest again.

Echo chuckles. "Maybe we could go to the arcade or something after we go to the cantina, how does that sound?"

My eyes light up. "I'll definitely have to carry yall in battle royale today, maybe we could play some hardpoint, but we can't play ranked cause I'm legendary rank and yall are like pro rank-"

"Yea kid, we get it, you're a lot more pro than us," Echo sounds slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong?" I nudge him playfully in the side. "Jealous?"

"...No..."

Fives and I laugh, clapping him on the back. "Don't worry, you'll get better in about 30 years."

Our laughter's cut short when I hear Rex say we hit a dead end.

Fives, Echo and I stay at the back to defend the flank, and I hear the faint sound of footsteps behind us. Fives turns around the corner, checking to see what's there, and almost gets headshotted by a droid.

Fives and I manage to get some shots on the droid, knocking it off the tunnel and into the lava, and General Skywalker slices the other 2 in half.

Then some commando droids jump in from the walls with shields, and start shooting at us again. I see Commander Tano put grenades to the wall and roll some at the commando droids as Fives and I try to blast them, and the grenades on both sides explode, clearing out the commando droids and causing a whole lotta dust. At least the dead end's not a dead end anymore, and we continue walking through the tunnel.

We reach the pipe.

"This pipe leads to the top of the ridge," General Skywalker says. "Where R2 will pick us up and get us out of here. There's the hatch."

He goes to open it, and the rest of us walk towards it.

"Let's go, everyone in," General Skywalker says. "Don't use your lights, and make sure your weapons are locked. The slightest electronic pulse could ignite this whole tube." Rex and the rest of us nod, checking that our weapons are locked and our lights are turned off. Echo and I are the last ones to climb into the pipe.

We climb up the ladder in the pipe, it's kinda dark in here, and it smells terrible. Smells worse than Fives's socks, and that's saying something. Commander Tano's flexing by climbing on the outside of the ladder, swinging herself up to the high ground.

"How much longer are we going to wander through this tunnel in the dark?" Captain Tarkin asks.

"Stop complaining," I say from the back. Tarkin and General Skywalker start discussing stuff I can't quite hear, until Commander Tano says, "I think I found a way out." She points at a hatch above us, and goes to check if the area's clear.

"What do you see, Snips?" General Skywalker asks.

"The coast is clear," she reports.

"Any sign of Obi-Wan and the shuttle?"

"No, I don't see him or R2 anywhere," Commander Tano says as she opens the hatch and starts to climb out, but stops. I can hear the sound of the droids from down here, but a severed metal hand falls into the pipe and I assume that she's taken care of things.

"We've gotta go," she shouts into the pipe, I can hear the sound of blaster fire now. We all start climbing up the pipe, hoping that no blaster bolts hit us in the head and kill us. We slide down the pipe and take cover behind a rock.

General Skywalker throws a charge into the pipe and we all take cover behind the rock, bracing ourselves for the explosion. The ground shakes, and a droid lands in front of us. We get up from our positions on the floor and General Skywalker says we're gonna do plan b: meet R2 at General Kenobi's position. We start walking over the droid and head off.

We reach their position in a short while where the blaster fight has already started. I shoot one of the droids manning a turret, and we run over to where General Kenobi and the others are, taking cover behind some containers.

"We gotta take out those turrets," I say to Fives and Echo. 

"I think we have a bigger problem," Echo says, as some droids on flying thingies fly over, shooting at us. One of the turrets shoot at our position, hitting the containers and sending some of us to the floor. I instantly get up, trying to clear my vision, holding my head with one hand and my pistol in the other.

The Jedi and taking care of the flying droids, there are some 4-legged ones advancing to where Fives and Echo are hiding, and I run over to them.

I really regret not stocking up on grenades before I came, because I only have one grenade left, and I through it at the 4-legged droid, where it explodes and kills it.

"How do we take out those turrets?! If we try anything, they'll blow up our ship," I shout.

And then a bunch of commando droids with shields come out, shooting at us. I hide behind the boxes, breathing heavily, the odds aren't good, we might not survive this, and I'm telling my brain to shut up right now because Fives just threw a grenade which knocks some of them back.

"General Skywalker, a droid is manning one of those turrets. They're going to blow up the shuttle, sir," Echo says into his comlink, and I check to see which turret it is, almost taking a blaster shot to the face. 

I see the turret shooting at the incoming General Skywalker and that other short dude that kinda looks like Yoda but with human skin tones, and they crash-land near the turret.

"This is our only chance, we've gotta stop him," Echo says, before running out and grabbing a shield, running towards the shuttle. Fives shoots from behind, keeping his distance from the turret. I see the turret firing at him, and I run to pull him away from the shuttle which the turret is going to fire at...

I see flames. I'm knocked backwards, I land on my back, I can't move, pieces of shrapnel are digging into my skin, I can feel myself burning, my gloves are on fire, and I can't do anything...

Where's Echo?

I can't see his body anywhere, only his helmet at the side. I see the Jedi running back to the shuttle, and I want to shout at them, to tell them that I'm still alive, but I can't.

And then Rex looks back at the explosion site and see me lying there, my vision gets blurry as he runs over and picks me up and carries me. His voice is muffled.

"You're gonna be okay ad'ika...you're gonna be okay..."

And everything fades into black.