Chapter 4

Hunter, Tech, Crosshair, and Wrecker made their way down the hallway to the place where their gear was kept. Tech had guessed that's where they put their stuff cause of some practice training that happened later last month. Hunter was glad that Tech remember stuff like that.

Once geared up they went back in to look for Echo. They remembered Echo mentioning a medical bay that he was brought to. They wished that they had let Echo speak last night when Echo was going to tell them what happened. They might have more information about where he is now.

Tech lead the way down the medical hall.

"Ok, Echo could be in any one of these rooms from this point on." Tech said casually.

"Alright boys, start looking for our brother." Hunter said as he reached the first door in the hall and opened it to find a normal average clone on the bed resting probably from a battle wound. Hunter closed the door and made his way to the next one. Crosshair, Wrecker, and Tech had joined in the process of finding Echo.

Every door they opened was usually an average clone healing from a war injury. They did get a few rare rooms with Captions or Generals who have gotten injured or sick and needed medical attention. They were also able to avoid Doctors and medical personal surprisingly. Tech did run into a nurse tending a wounded trooper but she didn't bother him any mind as he apologized and closed the door.

Wrecker reached one of the doors close to the end of the hallway and found it was locked and moved on to the next door but before he could do that Crosshair grabbed his bicep and dragged him back to the closed door.

"Wrecker, what was behind this door?" Crosshair tested him.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Well, uhh I don't know. It was locked!" Wrecker explained.

"Uh huh and why do people usually lock doors?" Crosshair walked him through it like a child in school.

"Uhhhhhh to … not … be … seen by anyone else?" Wrecker asked more than answered.

"Good, so maybe you should break the door down and check with your own eyes to make sure its not Echo who is in there?" Crosshair said a little annoyed and worried for their missing vod.

"Right," Wrecker broke the door down and ran in the room with Crosshair behind him. They first saw the medical bed that was being occupied by a disformed normal reg clone. Except, it wasn't. It was Echo, one of their own.

"Echo," Crosshair mumbled under his breath as he placed his sniper down on the floor and rushed to his side. Echo was plugged in like a machine again. His eyes flickered back and forth as if trying to process information. He looked… dead? No, withdrawn. He looked absent. Any sign of color in his tone that had returned was now gone again. Crosshair checked to see how many wires and cords were hooked up to his brother. As he made his way around to the other side of the bed that's when he noticed it. Another three ports on the side of his head. They looked red and swollen. They were above his right ear. One of the three ports closes to the back of his head was still open and just a hole, they hadn't put in the port itself yet. There was also a metal base plate that shaped the side of Echo's head perfectly that the ports were connected to. The base plate must have been how they got the holes in Echo's head in the first place. The base plate covered most of the side of his head and completely covered his ear.

"Wrecker, go get Hunter and Tech." Crosshair said after a few moments of silence. They needed to get Echo out of here. His brother was done being a human droid for people to poke and meddle with. He was a human being, clone or no clone he was still a man.

Crosshair had no idea how to help without hurting him further so he waited for Tech to come in and look to see for himself the mess they made with Echo. Once his three brothers were back, Hunter stopped in his tracks, took a heavy breath before looking down at the floor closing his eyes. He promised Rex that nothing bad like this would happen again and not only did something bad happen to Echo but it was the same thing that he just went through. All of Echo's progress to recover was now down the drain. At least Echo wasn't held captive here for very long.

Tech was trying to find the system that Echo was hooked up to this time. He found the hardware and database that their vod was attached to. Echo was extremely pale just like the first time Tech had rescued him with Rex. His chest was bare and he was clad in a pair of sweats. He had wires plugged into him left and right filling almost every port on his head and neck. Tech also noted that they had added smaller ports on the side of his ribs and reinforced the metal plate down his spine.

Abruptly the door to the med bay swung open. It was Tarkin followed by Nala Le who held different types of wires and cords no doubt for the new port they were about to put into Echo's head.

Anger bubbled up inside the Bad Batch as they chased after them. Tech staying behind to help Echo unplug from all of these machines (again).

As Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker turned the corner, a pack of troopers lined the hallway letting Tarkin and Nala Le pass.

"Fire!" One of the troopers yelled and the hallway filled with blaster shots. The three of them dodged behind the wall back into the hallway they just came from.

"Come on boys, we need to get Echo out of here, well have to catch these kriffing bastards another day." Hunter said, anger in his voice.

The three of them ducked and dodged their way back to the room where Echo and Tech were.

"Tech, we need to get out of here now. There are troopers right behind us. Is Echo set?" Hunter said keeping watch on the door as Wrecker and Crosshair entered the room again.

"No, I can't find a safe way to unplug him like the last time we found him. These computers are much more complex I'll need more time." Tech said still working.

"That's time we don't have!" Hunter yelled, shooting his blaster down the hall at incoming troopers.

"Just a minute!" Tech yelled back.

"Too late, just take the computers with us!" Crosshair grabbed the base of one of the main computers and shoved it into Wreckers arms.

Hunter and Tech looked at each other and nodded before grabbing all the important equipment that Echo was attached to. Hunter laid cover fire down the hall as Tech worked to get the door between them and the troopers closed. This would be so much easier if Echo was awake. Tech thought. Once the door was shut the Bad Batch ran down the hall toward the hanger, Echo on a portable hover bed.

"This way!" Tech said leading the way looking at his gadget in his hands that had the map of the facility. Once they reached the hanger, they made way for their ship as Crosshair took care of the troopers that were in there on patrol. They got Echo on board and started the engines, quickly taking off before anyone had a chance to follow them.

"How is he?" Hunter come to the back of the ship where everyone was gathered around Echo as Tech worked.

"I can't be sure," Tech answered not looking away from his computer.

They sat there in silence for about two hours as Tech worked. Slowly drifting through space on auto piolet. They didn't have any destinations. Tech was able to get one or two wires detached from Echo's upper neck near the base of his skull. The ports around the right side of his head thought, where every new and delicate. Out of the three new ports Echo had two wires attached to them. Tech was certain that if that last port got finished there would be a wire in that one as well. It was really tricky for Tech to fully understand what Tarkin was trying to do with Echo and why.

Good thing we got him when we did. I can't imagine what they had planned. Tech thought still looking at his computer screen.

"I-I think I got it…" Tech said slowly working near Echo's head after finishing what he was doing on his computer.

Tech reached for the first wire in the new port and gave it a slight tug and unhooked it from Echo's port. As soon as Tech did that Echo let out a strained weakened cry as electricity coursed through his body making his weak form tense up and shake.

"Turn it off!" Crosshair yelled after a few seconds of watching his brother shake in pain.

"Shut it down!" Hunter joined in.

"What's happening to him?! Make it stop. You're hurting him!" Wrecker panicked as he tried to touch Echo to comfort him only to receive a high voltage shock that stung his hand a traveled up his arm to his shoulder. Wrecker looked down at his shaking brother, his eyes half open and rolled in the back of his head. All of his muscles tightened to the point of shaking. Wrecker felt completely helpless. "DO SOMETHING!" He yelled at Tech as a tear rolled down his face.

"I'm trying! I'm trying! Just a few more seconds!" Tech yelled back typing something into his computer then grabbing the loose wire he just pulled out and plugged it back into Echo's port. Echo's shaking stopped and turned into hesitated twitching. They froze for a moment in shock.

"Vitals?" Hunter asked softly fearing the worse.

Tech quickly turned to the side and checked Echo's vitals on the machine next to him. "Heart rate elevated, but other than that, he's stable." Tech responded quickly.

"Thank the force that worked," Crosshair breathed.

"What was that?" Hunter asked a little angry at no one in particular.

"I don't know, it must have been some sort of firewall." Tech began looking for answers at the many screens that he was surrounded by.

"What do you mean a firewall?" Wrecker asked holding Echo's hand in his own finally being apart to comfort Echo.

"Meaning, the wires and computers that are attached to Echo are designed to block unauthorized access while permitting outward communication, which is why when I tried to unplug Echo from the computer he got electrocuted." Tech explained.

"So, what now?" Wrecker asked the question everyone was thinking.

A somber silence fell over them as they feared what would happen with Echo.