"Oh hell no! We have to at least try to form an escape plan!" Declared Speed.
"Speed, why do you always resist bedtimes?" Boxer muttered.
Echo nodded. "I agree with Speed. If no one's going to be coming for us then we have to get out on our own." He was curled up next to Fives, clearly happy to have his brother back by his side.
"Master Kenobi will figure it out. He's tracked Anakin down loads of times. Adding us to the equation is only going to make it easier for him." Ahsoka said. Though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as the others.
Jesse bit his lip. "Maybe there's a way we can we can help him out a bit."
"How? This isn't like sneaking out of the barracks on a Friday night. If we gat caught we're dead." Kix countered.
"If Wolffe catches you sneaking out of the barracks you're dead." Pointed out Coric. "At least this way we're risking it for something other than alcohol."
"Beer is worth risking your life for." Inputted Fives. Echo opened his mouth to argue but Ahsoka got their first.
"As someone whose seen you all fight over drinking before, let's move on." She interrupted.
"If we escape, we only help ourselves; if we get a signal to the republic, we help everyone here." Theorized Denal.
"But if we escape then we can give the republic more information that would help with a rescue OP." Ahsoka chimed in.
"If we escape, what happens to everyone still here?" Cautioned Burner. "Would they kill everyone to maintain secrecy?" The thought sunk in over everyone.
"Didn't think of that." Sighed Ahsoka. She frowned. Her men could see the gears in her head turning, searching for a way to save them all, not finding anything. "I miss Master Skywalker. He'd figure us a way out of this."
"Hey, we're not that bad are we?" Echo asked.
"I for one, think we are hilarious." Grinned Fives.
"Focus." Hissed Denal. "If we don't come up with something soon, our odds of escape or rescue decrease significantly. And even if we do, our job becomes 2x as much work since we'll have to save the rest of the legion at the other camp too."
" We're busting everyone out, that's all I know for sure." Ahsoka said with a sense of sense of determination. "I have no idea how, but we're doing it."
"Didn't you and Echo start planning something while you were pushing the mine carts?" Kix reminded the two.
"Less than 30 seconds after we decided to make a preliminary escape plan two commando droids showed up and dragged me away." Ahsoka pointed out. "Although Fives and I did have a bit of fun."
Fives gave the grope a devious grin. "Once I got over my confusion of your sudden declaration of a burning passion for me, yeah it was kinda fun to watch their faces."
"I thought I wanted to know but turns out I don't." Burner whispered.
"Story of my life." Replied Echo.
"Guys, seriously though. There are no bad ideas." Ahsoka reminded everyone. "Master Skywalker is probably working on breaking out right now and we need to at least have an outline of a plan so it looks like we didn't spend the whole time goofing off."
"Maybe we can find a way to drop the republic a line?" Suggested Jesse.
"I'm imaging how that conversation would go." Snorted Speed.
Fives cracked up. "That would be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. 'Hey guys, 501 here, can you please come save us from the sadistic seppies that are holding us hostage along with several other brothers."
"If we got a hold of Fox he'd probably just be delighted that we're not there to beat him and his men at beer pong anymore." Coric bragged.
"Coric, you're horrible at beer pong." Kix reminded him playfully.
"If we called the 212 Master Kenobi wouldn't even be surprised. He's so used to us getting into trouble all the time." Ahsoka snickered.
"It's not our fault that we get into tough situations more then they do." Protested Mixer. "Trouble seems to just..."
"Find us?" Finished the rest of the group.
"I wish the republic would find us." Muttered Kix. "How hard can it possibly be?"
"It's a big galaxy." Ahsoka said with a sad laugh. "I'm sure those who were here earlier were saying the same about us." She curled her legs up to rest of her body and leaned her head against Fives's shoulders.
"I'm just going to lean against you for a bit ok Fives?"
"Sure thing kid. I'm a great pillow. Ask Echo."
"Hey Echo," Ahsoka called out. "Is Fives a good pillow?"
"Decent, yeah." Came the reply.
"If we're going to talk about Fives's talent at pillow-ing, do it in the morning. We need Rex to keep us focused, escape plans not happening tonight. Commander Tano can barely keep her eyes open and Speed looks like he's about to pass out. Not that I'm complaining about that of course. Besides, tomorrow is going to suck. We're losing half of the family." Kix declared. His inner medic was coming back.
Ahsoka stood up on shaky legs. "Alright, so the plan is if you see a chance, send a transmission to the nearest republic legion or outpost in the best fitting manner. Either will do."
"We're probably not even going to get the chance to day goodbye to them." Breathed Burner.
"Hot damn, I hope Leaps's wound set properly." Kix muttered. Full medic Kix was back. Which was probably good considering what was coming for those who weren't being transferred.
"Do you think we could use the tunnels to sneak over there?" Echo questioned. His tone was even and very do-you-think-we-could-do-this? but his face said that he thought he had come up with the best idea in the world.
"There are so many," Ahsoka sighed. "That single tunnel system is more extensive than anything I saw on Geonosis with Barriss. We don't know our way around down there and getting lost would-"
"Wait, hold up" Jesse interrupted "You and Comander Offee survived underneath the wreckage because you used some scrape and bits to produce a signal which General Skywalker picked up on his comm. And was able to locate the both of you."
"Yeah?" Ahsoka began. Sudden realization dawned on her face. "The taser! If I can build a transmitter, then if I can tap into Master Kenobi's or Master Plo's comm channels, we'd be home by morning practically!"
"That's a lot of if's" Cautioned Boxer. "Can we really risk our only weapon?"
Fives glanced at Ahsoka who was now perched on the lower bunk. "Do it."
Jesse scrambled underneath the bed that covered the entrance to the tunnels to retrieve the taser.
"If you have spare bits and pieces to anything, pass them over. I'm not asking how you got them." Ahsoka spoke quickly as the taser and a few odds and ends were passed over to her. She picked up the taser and held it up to the light.
"Guys, go to bed. This might take awhile. Go get some sleep." She whispered as she ran her thumbnail along the casing of the taser. The medics, knowing the value of sleeping when possible, quickly dispersed throughout the barrack. Speed and Denal did as well. Fives, Echo, and Jesse all sat down around her.
"Guys go to sleep." She ordered.
"Commander, last night 3 seppies manages to get in here without waking any of us." Echo began.
"So we'll keep watch and keep you company while you work on the transmitter." Fives continued.
"And we'll make sure you don't fall asleep." Jesse finished.
Ahsoka glanced up at the 3 of them without stopping. "Hey, I've never fallen asleep when I was doing something before."
"Yes you did." Echo snorted. "You were doing those mission reports. Remember?"
"Something important." Ahsoka corrected herself. "If you're all going to exhaust yourselves, you might as well be useful."
Echo pulled an assortment of spare parts off his belt. "These might help. I would've given them to you earlier but I didn't want Speed to know I had them."
Ahsoka gave a small laugh. "Why don't you want Speed to know you have these?" She asked as she picked up an copper coupling from the small pile.
"Less you know less you can say in interrogation." Was his reply.
"You need better lighting." Fives noted. He pulled a helmet light off his belt.
"How'd you manage to keep your helmet light?" Jesse questioned. "I didn't get to keep my helmet light. Did you get to keep your helmet light?" He directed this last part at Echo who shook his head.
"It broke off the actual helmet long time ago. If we need them for a mission typically I just use some duck tape to put it on and pull it off once its over. It was on my belt when I got captured. Guess they didn't search me."
"Thank you, seppie laziness." Ahsoka commented. "Hold the light right there, yes, perfect. This just got 10x easier."
"Do you think they forgot to search you or do you think they did and just dismissed it?" Echo wondered aloud. "You'd think they would've remembered something like that."
"Wouldn't be the first time the clankers have dismissed us because we're clones." Jesse muttered. "They do that a lot."
"And every damn time that's their downfall." Said Fives with a hint of a smile.
"What's their endgame?" Ahsoka began. "The things they're doing don't make sense."
"They don't make sense to you because you're not a sadistic separatist hell-bent on killing people." Fives snickered.
"Thanks for reassuring me Fives." Ahsoka continued. "But look at everything. It just doesn't add up. What's the point of keeping all the ranking officers together? If I were them, I wouldn't do that because we'd all agree what to answer to certain questions. We could get all of our information so in sync that it would be impossible for them to know what was true and what wasn't."
"You think they…" Fives stopped short. He made a fist and slammed the heel of his hand into twice. It was the hand signal for bugs. Not the buzzing kind of bugs, mind you. That was one tap, 2 taps meant the listening kind of bugs. Ahsoka glanced at Echo and Jesse anxiously. A million thoughts were racing through her head.
"Let's just cover all our bases." She mouthed. Echo nodded. As did Jesse.
"This is hopeless." Ahsoka spat angrily. She didn't stop working though. The fire in her eyes was far from out.
"Yeah. This was just a bad plan in general." Jesse agreed.
"We'll figure something else out when Rex gets back." Fives suggested. "We're kinda useless without Rex."
"Just destroy the pieces of the taser now. There's no way you can put it back together. If we don't let them get the pieces its at least a small win." Echo ordered. To anyone listening, it sounded as if the four of them had given up and were trying salvage the day. Far from it in fact.
"How?" Ahsoka sassed. "It's not like I've got a handy dandy light saber on me." Her movements were rushed now. Fives stood up and boosted himself up to the top bunk. He began to feel around on the ceiling. His eyes went wide for a minute then he slid back down with the others.
"There's one up there." He mouthed.
"Fuck." Breathed Ahsoka. She though quickly covered for herself. "I pinched my finger."
Echo looked at her. "You know the curse words?" He demanded.
"Yeah?" She answered.
"This whole damn war we've been avoiding cursing around you because we thought you didn't know them yet?" Jesse said as he buried his head in his hands. "All those times, getting ambushed, getting shot, nearly getting blown up, we didn't cuss."
"Help me crush these." Ahsoka hooked two wires onto a small metal fragment and began pressing the spark of the taser to the metal.
"Sure." Echo snorted. Now that they knew the barrack was actually bugged, every word had to be chosen with care. A single slip could have horrible outcomes.
"Fives." Ahsoka broke her line of sight from her work to mouth. "Now they know we lied."
Fives got a panicked look in eyes. "We're screwed." He didn't bother mouthing those words. Saying things like that in the situation they were in was to be expected.
"I doubt they're monitoring it live." Echo soothed. "My guess is they have a filter that flags anytime certain keywords are said. Those keywords would all probably have to do with escape. You guys are good."
Ahsoka glanced down to the transmitter in her hands. It was rudimentary as hell, but Anakin would be proud. "Who should I try first?" She muttered. "Master Plo or Master Kenobi?"
"Whoever's closest." Jesse smiled. " I never actually thought that would work."
"You lazy ass." Ciá scolded Taz. "You honestly risked our prisoners getting a weapon on the off chance they would try to assemble a transmitter signal? You couldn't even be bothered to do basic research on republic locations?"
"Well it worked didn't it? Besides, all that's coded. We don't have those codes. This group is difficult but they'll yield those codes in time in time."
"We should go to bed." Ciá continued. "Big day tomorrow. We're shipping that group off to the South Camp."
"Think they'll miss the Compound?" Snickered Taz. "I would if I were going where they're going- wait here we go. Signal is transmitting-see they did figure it out- and-oh it has a bit of a ways to go, the nearest Cruiser is really far away-oh now it's there, it's poking around trying to be noticed. But it's so weak they can't see it."
"Who got it?" Ciá asked. Her eyes lit up the way they always did when capturing another group became a possibility.
"212th. Hot damn. Didn't one of the clones say that group would never let them live this down?" Taz's whole face was lit up in a grin.
"We can't catch them all. That'd get us much to visibility. I say we start planning for 2 barracks worth." Cià ordered.
"I assume you mean to relocate 2 barracks of 501 clones-and I also assume you mean the ones without the officers- and restock them with 212 clones?"
"Why not?"
"You never answered my question earlier. The one about the clones missing it here." He reminded her.
"Aw, South Camp's not that bad. It's North Camp you should be scared for."
"Don't remind me. Remember that time during our training? When there was a clone riot. God, there was more blood on my hands from that day then this whole war."
Ciá smiled. "But we broke the riot. Just like we'll break this group. And we can't do that unless we go to bed."
Taz yawned. "You deny that you're the mother duck friend yet you've already put Ray and Jif to bed, have scolded me for taking an unnessacary risk, and now you're trying to make me go to bed."
"Shut up you." She punched him in the arm.
"Have you briefed Jif on what transfers are like? You walked him through the entire thing?"
"From pumping the barrack full of knock out gas to loading the bodies onto the train. No muss, no fuss." She said proudly.
"Great, well, it has been a pleasure enjoying your company Lieutenant Ciá. I'm off to bed and I am ordering you to do the same."
"Yeah, bedtime."
Shout outs to DarthTopaz, AutumnLeaves03, and Lux's Sister for their reviews. The duckies are doing well. Have a good night guys, Rokawk15.
