Goodbye Rex :( - 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?!"