Chapter 5: Good Morning, Marauder

Omega awoke with a jolt. A large grin spread across her blanket-marked face. Today Tech was letting her help him fix the ship!

She bounded upright, tossed her blanket hastily in the corner, and slid down the ladder.

She bounced happily about as she collected her ration bar and water pouch from the shelf, remembered only after breakfast that she had to tidy up, and dashed towards the fresher, nearly crashing into Hunter as she ran.

"Woah, slow down there, Omega," Hunter warned.

Omega grinned sheepishly and slowed to a skip. She scrubbed her face and then eyed her hair in the mirror. It was sticking out funny like Hunter's. Omega liked it that way, but Echo had been insistant upon proper care and order, and Hunter had said her hair didn't grow that way naturally like his did.

Shrugging away her thoughts, Omega followed orders and combed her hair.

She skipped to the cockpit. Echo was sitting in the pilot's seat with a steaming cup of caf in his hand. Omega took an appreciative sniff. The aroma of the drink was so refreshing, and Omega hopped a little closer to Echo and pointed to the drink.

"Echo, may I please try some?"

Echo looked thoughtfully down at his drink, then up at her.

For a moment, Omega thought he was going to say 'no', given that she'd asked every other member of the Batch the same question and had been refused each time.

She blinked when Echo said, "Sure! Just a sip, now," and handed her the mug.

She put the cup to her lips and took a sip, immediately scrunching up her nose at the bitter taste and shuddering.

Echo smiled. "Satisfied?"

Omega handed the cup back to him. "Blegh, you can have it, Echo. Why do you guys like this stuff?"

"You get used to it," said Echo.

Omega shrugged and leaned against the dashboard.

The viewport was streaked with bits of dust and a few leaves carried by last night's rain, but the sky was a vivid blue. Whispy clouds brushed across its surface and there were actual sunbeams glancing through the buildings of Ord Mantell. One of them had made its way into the ship, and Omega turned her hand over in its light, marvelling at the sparkling particles of dust that were illuminated and floating so gently about.

"Oh, it's beautiful!" Omega sighed. "Wrecker, look at this!" she said when Wrecker came barging into the cockpit.

Wrecker paused and studied the sunbeam. "Wwwoooowwwwww..." he sighed. "That is beautiful!"

Echo smiled into his cup.

It was quite early, Omega realized. The chronometer read 0445 and Tech hadn't emerged from his room yet.

The Marauder was silent except for a few intermittent beeps and blips, amid the soft cracking of machinery and metal plates shifting deep insode the ship. It was so quiet Omega thought she could almost hear the noises of the wildlife outside.

"Are you excited, Omega?" said Echo.

Omega nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh! I get to help Tech fix the ship!"

Echo smiled and nodded. "Good for you! Pay attention. Tech can be...a little enthusiastic when it comes to repairs. He's got a one track mind."

Omega was about to ask what a 'one-track-mind' was when Wrecker interrupted.

"Hey, Omega, where's Lula? I've gotta fix her ear."

Omega looked puzzled. "I didn't see her this morning..."

"Perhaps if you picked up your room you'd find her," Echo interjected and took a loud, drawn out sip of caf.

Omega sighed. "Wait here, Wrecker. I'll find her."

And find Lula she did. The tooka was flopped sadly underneath the pile of Omega's blanket. After returning the doll to Wrecker, Omega tidied up her room.

Within five minutes the blanket and pillow were neatly stacked behind the gunner's seat, Trooper was at attention as best she could be with her floppy limbs and oversized head, and all the rumples in the soft floor had been smoothed to the edges.

Omega clambered down the ladder in time to wave hello again to Hunter.

"Is Tech up yet?" she asked.

Hunter shook his head and entered the cockpit. Omega hopped after him. "So when do we all get started?"

"Not for another hour or so," said Hunter. "Cid's doesn't open until 0600, so we've got some time to relax."

"Relax," Omega repeated. She hopped back to the ship's main area and sat down at the table. Within moments, her right knee was bouncing. Tech's knee bounced when he thought. Why wasn't Tech up anyway? He must have been so tired.

Omega busied herself for a while with the datapad Tech had given her while the other members of the Bad Batch talked quietly in the cockpit. There were all sorts of stories and pictures on it as well as several games that required the speed and accuracy with mathematical equations in order to win. It was a lot of fun and it seemed to eat up the time with the speed of a starving rancor.

The chronometer on her read 0550 by the time she stopped.

Moments later, Echo, Hunter, and Wrecker entered and took their seats at the table, still in conversation. Echo was nibbling at a ration bar, and Wrecker was crushing the wrapper of his in one huge fist.

"Cid had told me she had a couple of jobs lined up, but one got cancelled on account of the target's termination before Cid could contact his agent."

"I thought those Vagaari thought the information he had was of vital importance," said Echo. "I wasn't too keen on taking up that second job Cid mentioned."

"Which one?" said Wrecker, filching another ration bar from the container on the table. Hunter closed the lid on his hand.

"The one where we retrieve some other target for someone else." said Ech, wincing a bit at Wrecker's overdramatic "OW!!!"

"What's a Vagaari?" said Omega.

Hunter scratched the back of his neck. "A species with weird habits," he said.

"Like the Geonosians?"

"Yes."

"What do they do?"

"Uh...they have...strange interests," said Echo. "Hunter, shouldn't we get going?"

"Yup." Hunter lowered his arms to the table, laced his fingers together, and stretched. Omega thought she heard his shoulders crack. Hunter relaxed with a sigh. "Let's head out."

Omega scrambled to put her tablet away. "I'll get Tech!"

Hunter popped both elbows and Echo winced again. "Yeah, he's slept in enough," Hunter said, seemingly oblivious to Echo's dark stare. "We'll do a quick review of the schedule and head out."