The rain was falling hard on the streets, and visibility had become extremely limited. Rex, Echo, and their two commandos had ducked into what had clearly once been a restaurant, but was now little more than a heap of chairs and tables in disarray. Their wet boots made shining prints in the layer of dust on the floor. The dust was coating everything—the area had not been used or even entered for a very long time.
They stood in the shadows near the entryway, dripping, waiting for some recon from their two scouts.
"The signals are coming from within a large complex," Echo said, breaking the silence. "Parts of the complex appear to be heavily populated."
"Is there a back door?" Rex asked.
"There are several former entrances, but it would be necessary to force entry on most of them. They have been permanently sealed. The main entryway is large. There are a number of Mrlssi within sight."
"You said we would have to force entry on most, but not all. Is there any other entrance?"
"On the east side," Echo said. "A single door. The entry itself seems unused, but the street is a small thoroughfare."
"What's the purpose of the complex?"
"It does not seem to be housing. They appear to be socializing. Some Mrlssi are carrying goods in and others are leaving in small groups. Recommend holding position until they have cleared out."
Rex swallowed. The hour was growing late. He hoped the Mrlssi had a habit of retiring early, or else they were going to be waiting in this dim room well into the night.
"Noted. We'll hold position here. Keep your men on watch. If we're lucky, the rain will also let up by the time we move out. At ease, everyone."
Neither Echo nor the two commandos appeared to relax at all, but Rex pulled up a chair against the wall by the door and sat.
"Sit," Rex said, and the three immediately sat themselves down in nearby chairs. Rex breathed a sigh and tried to relax. The mission was all going according to plan. This was only a minor delay. He didn't understand why he was so tense; he had had blaster bolts flying at him for all of his adult life. This was a simple, even safe, mission in comparison, despite mandatory success being a constant pressure. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall.
Minutes passed with no sound but the shh of the pouring rain and his increasingly calm breathing. He glanced at Echo and the commandos, sitting still and silent like dead men propped up in chairs, and his stomach tightened. It was Echo. It was the so-called Bad Batch. It was this place. They were all part of the grand design of the leaders of the Republic, but it all still made Rex feel uneasy. Perhaps that was why it made Rex uneasy.
"Echo," Rex said.
Echo turned his head. "Captain."
"Do you…. How much do you remember? From before?"
"Before the modifications?"
"Yes."
"I don't remember the blast. I awoke in the med lab on Kamino. I was on life support and in a great deal of pain." Echo's voice, ever low and hoarse, betrayed no emotion at recalling this memory. "I felt trapped in my body, as I couldn't talk in a way that could be understood, and I couldn't hear what was being said to me. I couldn't think clearly, possibly due to pain-relieving drugs in my system. It wasn't until later that I was informed about what had happened. The only thing I knew at the time was that I was dying."
"They did save your life, then," Rex said.
"I'm certain of it."
Rex sighed. "But what about before the blast? Your life before? You do remember. You remembered who I was."
"You're correct," Echo said. "I can't remember the mission. But yes, I do remember my life before."
"And you remember your friends? Your brothers?"
"Of course, Captain."
Rex frowned to himself, wondering if he should really ask. "Do you… ever miss them?"
"No," Echo said, and Rex was suddenly revisited by the pain of Fives dying in his arms, afraid and betrayed.
Echo really wouldn't care. Rex clenched his fist and was almost relieved that Fives would never know the mockery that had been made of his friend.
"Do you think of them? At all? Don't you care about them?"
"Captain, understand that it has nothing to do with me anymore. We are soldiers. The mission is the only thing that matters."
"And what is the mission?" Rex growled.
"The mission is to do whatever is commanded of us."
"Good soldiers follow orders."
"Yes, Captain. As soldiers, we don't need friends. Only allies. Command tells us who our allies are, and together, we complete the mission."
"What if they were wrong? What if they told you to fire on your allies? On your brothers, on the Jedi?"
"If they were wrong, how would we know?" Echo seemed completely unconcerned by this conversation, which was just as well: He was unlikely to ever repeat it. Rex, on the other hand, felt hot and on the edge of shaking from some combination of anger and fear, feelings he had tried so hard to put behind him for the sake of returning to duty.
"You would know it in your heart," Rex said, his voice low and rough from trying to suppress his emotions. "You still have one, don't you? A human heart? That's what separates us from them. Sometimes, you have to make your own choices."
"That's treason," he said simply.
"That's experience."
They sat stiffly in their chairs, no longer facing each other. Rex stared hard out the doorway into the sheet of rain. His heart was racing—he had to calm down. This wasn't the time or place to lose his focus. He had promised the general that he was fit to return to command and now he had to prove it. He might not get another chance. The war was running down to the wire, and they couldn't afford to have incapable soldiers in command positions. Right now, at this moment, brothers across the Republic were counting on him to lead this mission, to kill this virus so they could safely dispatch to the front, or at least, have a better chance of safely returning from it. This conversation was not important right now. Rex took a deep breath.
Echo was right about one thing: Sometimes you had to leave feelings behind.
Eventually, Rex's tenseness wore off as the better part of an hour crawled by without interaction. Head against the wall, Rex continued to stare listlessly into the rain, which against his wishes had made no effort to let up. It was almost nostalgic.
"Entry clear. Recommend cautious approach to east entrance," Echo said, jerking Rex out of his daze.
He stood, stretched slightly, and said, "Let's finish this."
One of their commandos slipped out of the entryway, and within a minute, Echo was gently pressing Rex forward.
Rex could hear the musical voices of the Mrlssi echoing in the streets, but Echo was guiding them down alleyways that were barely wide enough to pass through in their armor. Many were heaped with debris that made progress slick, cumbersome, and slow. But the important thing was that the alleys were empty of residents, and so their approach continued unnoticed.
They stopped just inside the intersection of their alley and the larger street between them and the complex.
"All clear," Echo whispered, and pointed toward an alcove on the side of the large building, presumably where the back door was. They dashed across the street, then sidled along the rough walls of the building. Rex ducked into the alcove and was soon joined in the tight space by Echo and their two members of Diode Squad.
"Where are the others?" Rex asked.
Echo lifted one finger and looked upward. Rex followed his line of sight, three stories up on the opposite side of the street. He couldn't see anything but the dripping rails and grating of another metal catwalk.
Rex nodded to Echo. The commando would keep watch on their exit route.
"The other is inside."
"What's on the other side of this door?" Rex said.
"A store room," Echo replied. "Unused."
Rex slowly pushed the heavy door, glad that their scout had already done the business of getting it to open. The room was small and dark, with only the dim light of a lamp across the street falling behind them. Their shadows fell long onto a worktable cluttered with machinery parts, all coated with the same sheen of dust seen in the restaurant. More debris was strewn on counters lining the wall and jammed in stacked bins on the floor. Rex noticed the wet footprints where their scout had first disturbed the dusty layer, and the prints disappeared beyond another door opposite. Rex shut the door and the hammering splash of the rain faded instantly to a dull static. He turned on his headlamps.
"Nothing we can do about that," Rex said, gesturing to the prints.
"It doesn't seem like anyone will look. No one has been in here for years."
Rex picked up a bin of rags and reached under the top layer for the cleaner ones underneath. "Wipe down. Feet too. We don't want to leave even more of a trail."
It was a bit of a struggle to clear the bulk of the water off their armor, and the dirty rags left large streaks. Rex tossed his unceremoniously aside after they were no longer dripping and the soles of their shoes were essentially dry.
"How's the way look like? Do we know where we're going?" Rex asked. He was finally starting to feel the focus of his best self. They were nearing their target.
"We've got a bug picking up visuals for us. The computer signals are coming from deep within the complex. We'll have to take it slow and steady. Recommend us four stay together. There are still Mrlssi in the building, though their numbers have diminished. The complex is dimly lit past this door."
"Proceed," Rex said, turning off his headlamps.
One of the commandos opened the inside door and a pale electric light fell into the room. He peered cautiously around the doorway, then side-stepped out. The three followed and they all stalked single-file down a narrow hallway with a sagging ceiling, and up a cracked flight of stairs. The door here was open. Another pause, and then they slipped one by one past another door jammed in a half-closed position, getting a glimpse of one battered Mrlssi roosting in a corner, slumped against the wall. Rex again wondered how the radiation affected the birds.
They found themselves in a dark room with a heavy metal door on the opposite end. They stepped cautiously around a pile of rags and feathers that seemed to be the desiccated remains of one of the inhabitants. Rex caught a movement to the left of his vision and snapped up his pistol. The commando stopped and put one hand up. It was their scout.
"Once we're on the other side," Echo said, "we'll send the bug out again. It will stay ahead of us." The commando opened his other hand and Rex saw he was holding a small droid, two inches in length and flat, with small lenses protruding from its front and rear.
"Let's go," Rex said, holstering his pistol. Echo turned toward the door, and after a few seconds of communicating with the door controls, it hissed and opened with a deep mechanical groan.
The Mrlssi remains stirred, and a whining whistle came from it like a yawn. Rex jumped to a defensive position and watched a commando throw a dirty blanket over the pile. Then they rushed into a small brightly lit compartment on the other side of the door. It clamped shut with a muffled bang the moment Echo pressed the keypad.
"Think it'll follow us?" Rex asked.
"The door won't open right away even if they do know the entry code," Echo said, not bothering to whisper. "This is a decontamination unit."
There was a drawer to the right side of a glass door, some kind of clothing receptacle. Evidently they were in the changing area. Echo opened the door into the main chamber, roughly the size of a gunship passenger compartment, and attempted to continue through the next glass door. It wouldn't budge.
They waited uncertainly for a few moments. The lights were harsh after the dimness of the outside. Suddenly an opaque white liquid shot from four square shower heads fixed into the ceiling, drenching them once more. It also doused the changing areas on either side. Suddenly the liquid turned clear. Seemed like a rinse.
"Great," Rex said. But then the liquid ceased and after a few final drips, air pumps in the walls blasted them with gale force winds, accompanied by a high pitched resonant ringing just on the edge of Rex's hearing. When the air stopped, Rex found he was reasonably dry.
"Squeaky clean," Rex said. "But why? What is it decontaminating us from?"
"I don't know," Echo said. "There must be a lab here."
"Or at least, there was a lab," Rex added. "Still, seems a bit lively suddenly. Wonder how long that fluid's been sitting in the system."
They filed out through the glass door into the next changing area.
"Don't suppose we can count on the radiation levels being safe in here, after something like that?"
"It would effectively remove radioactive particulates," Echo said, "but there could very well be a breach elsewhere in the lab. Besides, we don't know whether the unit is meant to keep things from coming in, or something else from getting out."
"Are you still picking up the signals?"
"Yes. They must be coming from the facility's old computer system."
The scout cautiously opened the chamber door and stuck their droid to the wall in the hallway beyond. It scuttled to the dark ceiling and onward.
After a few moments, Echo said, "Clear for the next fifty meters."
The filth of the outside was absent from this side of the unit. It was spotlessly clean. "I wonder if the Mrlssi come here at all," Rex said.
"We must assume the inner facility is occupied. We don't know how many other entry points there are."
They started down the hall. Rex couldn't help but notice the posters along the wall, fresh, almost new looking. They listed biosafety procedures, emergency contact lines, evacuation plans.
"Echo—" Rex swallowed his comment as Echo's hand shot up.
"Twenty-five meters ahead, we will be on a mezzanine. We'll be standing above a command center."
"Command center? This doesn't seem like a scientific facility. Looks military to me," Rex said, glancing at a notice on the wall undersigned by Chancellor Kalpana and some former head of the Anaxsi Government.
"Often one and the same, Captain. It doesn't matter to us."
The notice was a firm reminder to the employees that all research remain confidential for the safety of the Republic. Rex wondered who the enemy was back then. Was there one? He suddenly realized that he had never considered the nature of the armed forces of the Republic before they had clone troopers. It was hard to imagine a large functional army made up merely of trained civilians.
"Mrlssi sighted," Echo said, his voice a husky whisper. "When we reach the mezzanine, stay low and away from the railing. Looks like we've got some camping out."
"Isn't the computer terminal down there?" Rex whispered back.
Echo shook his head, and beckoned that they move more quickly.
They reached the mezzanine. The area was surprisingly dark, and although Rex could not look over the edge of the railing, it wasn't hard to imagine the scene below. He could hear the gentle trilling of the birds in soft conversation. A glow emanated from where the Mrlssi were, and he wondered at its source.
They crept low against the curved wall until they reached the door on their left and slipped inside. They found themselves inside a small presentation room, mercifully empty. There were familiarly labeled boxes stacked against one wall. Dry rations.
"We're getting closer." Echo glanced around at the empty amphitheater-style seating.
"How close?"
"There's one transmitting from…." Echo lifted a hand to touch his helmet on the right side, over his ear. "Alright. I've got it. And I've tapped into the local security system. The doors in that sector have been activated five times in the last hour. It'll be difficult not to run into anyone." He paused.
"We have to draw them away somehow." Rex stared around the dark room, thinking. "Otherwise we'll have to wait until they're all asleep."
"I've found access to an airborne toxin alarm. I could trigger it from a lab near the computer terminal."
"I wonder if they'll buy it."
"They only need to believe it long enough for us to do our job."
"Let's do it," Rex said.
An earsplitting keening came from the hallway outside, followed by an automated voice saying, "WARNING. YG32 DETECTED IN HALL A9. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY VIA DECON UNIT 8. REPEAT—" Between the words and the shrill Mrlssi translation, there was a faint scrabble of noise that Rex hoped was the sound of many clawed feet following instructions.
"They've left the immediate area," Echo said.
"We better do this quickly," Rex said. "Lead the way."
Echo rushed forward and down the stairs onto the command floor, Rex and the Squad on his heels. The Mrlssi didn't appear to have been camping out at all; there was no evidence of bedding or other personal artifacts. The glowing he had seen had been holo units, though blank images were now floating nondescriptly above the consoles.
Echo led them through another door off the command floor which entered into yet another hallway. This time, the doors on either side very clearly opened into high security laboratories. The doors each had labels listing project names and security levels required for entrance. Echo stopped suddenly just before a corner, then backed up. Dashing to the nearest door, he quickly overrode the keypad and herded the rest inside just before two Mrlssi rounded the corner. Through the small window in the door, Rex could see that one was dragging the other, and they seemed to be arguing. They both appeared well-groomed.
"Captain," Echo said quietly. Rex turned and realized they were standing in the antechamber of a living lab. Through another glass door, the darkened lab glowed with life and intent. There was a collection of computer terminals on standby, their blue lights gently illuminating tools and materials that had recently been in the hands of a chemist.
"This isn't right," Rex breathed.
"There are no more Mrlssi between here and the first terminal that may be transmitting the virus," Echo said. "We should proceed."
Rex swallowed, distinctly aware that although their mission had not changed, the circumstances certainly had. They weren't in a disaster zone.
He followed Echo out of the lab and caught other signs of life through the windows into the other chambers. His insides felt awash with the first tendrils of anxiety born from witnessing yet another deception. The question was, who among the possibilities was responsible, and who was being deceived?
"It's coming from here, alright," Echo murmured as they entered a surprisingly cluttered storage room. He stared down at the large console jammed in between recording equipment and other visual displays. The console appeared dead. "I can see it transmitting. It made its way through an old industrial sensor grid. But the actual program that's reproducing it is heavily encrypted and only accessible through this terminal's local network. Let me just see if we can bypass the encryption."
One of their commandos crouched just in front of the console and removed a small device from the box at his waist. It was roughly an inch long and blinked slowly with a small red light. The commando slotted it into an unmarked compartment near the base of the console.
"Beginning decryption."
Echo and the one commando stood still. The other two stood near the doorway, though Rex was certain that their little bug was feeding them plenty information about what was going on outside. Rex himself felt a bit useless standing there. He still wasn't quite sure why Echo had requested his presence on this mission; it wasn't out of sentimentality, that was for sure. So far he had done little more than been pushed forward and directed by Echo, and really, on a stealth mission of this kind, how could he compete with a five member unit of telepaths?
He sighed quietly to himself, wishing that he at least had some idea of how long this might take.
"He's cut off." The commando who was standing at the console turned toward Rex, and he realized this was the first time he had heard one of them speak. He sounded young.
"What? What do you mean?"
The commando turned his head toward Echo. "I'm not in communication with him anymore."
"Echo," Rex said, putting his hand on the trooper's shoulder.
Echo didn't move or give any indication that he'd heard Rex speak at all.
Rex shook him slightly, but he could immediately sense the futility of it. He glanced over his shoulder at the commando who had spoken. "Did the security system kick him out?"
"I'm not sure," he said. "I can only access the most rudimentary processes of his implant now. Awaiting orders, sir."
"Echo!" Rex waved a hand in front of his visor. No response. He reached up and pulled Echo's helmet off, hearing the hiss of the broken seal. Echo's eyes were wide, his face blank, like a mannequin.
"Sir!" the commando cried, with a surprising amount of feeling. "We were instructed not to unseal our suits or else face radiation poisoning!"
"It's alright, kid," Rex said. "I don't think there is any radiation. At least not in here." Rex felt strangely calm. He smacked Echo's cheek lightly. Echo's head jerked the tiniest fraction, but his eyes never moved. "Look at me, Echo. That's an order."
Echo's pupils dilated to a feral wideness, but there was no other indication that his words had made it through to him. Rex knew what this looked like. But it couldn't be. It wasn't the same. Rex's calm was threatened to be punctured by the memories of Ringo Vinda, and the effort it took to keep himself from chasing those memories vibrated through his body, pulsed in his head. But he knew this had to be different—Echo was different, he was a cyborg, and something must have gone wrong with the wiring in his second brain.
He put his hands on Echo's chest and shoved, but the ARC trooper just stepped backward mechanically, unthinkingly correcting his balance.
"What's your name?" Rex asked the commando.
"RC-Seven-Seven-Two-Two," he replied.
"I'm going to call you Twenty-Two. Sure you'll catch on. What's the last thing you remember sensing? Did you get through the encryption?" The more Rex tried to take charge of the situation, the better he would be able to ignore the images flashing in his mind.
"Yes, sir. The connection was broken in the same moment."
"Is he infected?" Rex murmured, feeling again a pang of fear deep in his gut.
"I don't know, sir. It's possible. Maybe he shut down the connection on his own, to prevent it from spreading."
"What about you? Did it kick you out? You're fine, aren't you?"
"I am fine," he said. "I disconnected when ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight unexpectedly vanished."
"Get back into that system," Rex commanded. He still didn't know whether it was safe, but dismantling this virus took precedence over Echo's… malfunction.
"Yes, sir," Twenty-Two said, and he knelt once more before the console. There were a few agonizing minutes of silence where there was no sound but that of Rex's own breathing in his ears, heavier than it should have been. He could feel it: the situation was slipping out of his control. They didn't have the right intel for the mission. He closed his eyes. Adapting to new situations was a quality necessary for leadership, and after years with Skywalker, it had become easier.
But Rex was having a hard time thinking. He couldn't clear his head. They were in the middle of what appeared to be a massive biochemical engineering project, one that was most certainly off the books. Rex didn't want to think about the implications of the decontamination units attached to the lab, but it was impossible not to.
Biochemical weapons.
What possible use could bio-weaponry be against an army of droids?
And as he thought, images of the war, everything he had been fighting for, everyone he had lost, everyone he was afraid of losing, it all fell into his vision like the vivid nightmares he was all too acquainted with. So much death on both sides, real living breathing people. They weren't always killing clankers, and the deaths were not always quick.
Rex didn't want to doubt the Republic. He couldn't. If he did, he would lose everything. His time on leave was enough to show him that if he continued down the path of skepticism, his life would fall to pieces, and he didn't know that there would be anything left of him after everything he had grown up believing in had been stripped away.
"Sir," someone said, and Rex's eyes flew open. It was Twenty-Two, and his hand was on Rex's arm. "This isn't it," he said.
"What?" Rex said, his voice suddenly filled with uncertainty. "Isn't what?"
"This isn't the terminal."
"What do you mean? It has to be." Rex shook his head. "What about Echo?"
"This terminal is a decoy," he said. "There are other signals just as ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight said, but there is no way of being certain which is the real point of transmission, if any of them are."
"Can you continue on with this mission without Echo?" Rex put a hand on his own chest and sat down on a crate.
"We could attempt it, but ARC—"
"Echo," Rex said. "His name is Echo."
Twenty-Two hesitated. "…Echo… has functioned as the head of our unit since our deployment."
"You're trained, aren't you? What use are you if you can't operate solo? What exactly were you created for?"
Twenty-Two seemed to slump slightly. Rex suddenly felt stifled in his armor and had a nearly uncontrollable need to rip it off. He felt like it was crushing his chest, suffocating him. He wondered if his air filters had stopped functioning.
"We were created to operate as one intelligent field unit but—"
"I can't breathe," Rex said, interrupting Twenty-Two's meager attempt to answer Rex's rhetorical question. He pulled off his helmet and was shocked by the chill in the air.
"Sir!" Twenty-Two said. "You don't look well."
"How would you know?" Rex gasped out. "Are you a medic? Let me get a look at you."
"Sir…?"
"You are human, aren't you? Not a clanker? Show me your face!"
Twenty-Two stood for a moment without moving, but then unsealed the commando helmet from his black suit and took it off.
Rex glanced at him, then exhaled and looked away, putting his hand against his forehead. "You're just a kid," he mumbled. He realized he had already known. As soon as he heard that voice, unsteady with the strain of having recently changed to the one he and all his adult brothers shared, he had known. "How old are you, seven?!"
"Yes, sir…." Twenty-Two's face was soft and unlined. He was the standard height of an adult clone, but his face had not entirely leaned out. He wore a similar, though smaller, headset to the one Echo had, but unlike Echo, still had a standard military haircut. Rex suspected that the kid barely filled out that armor. He looked to the other commandos and knew they were just the same, sent off from Kamino hidden inside suits that appeared much stronger and more mature than they were.
The truth was that Rex could hardly muster surprise. He knew this day was coming. No one talked about it, but everyone noticed; The rookie clones landing in his company, in battalions across the Grand Army, were getting progressively younger as the war went on. Even Fives had been younger than the standard age when he had been deployed, and that was years ago.
Still, Rex had hoped he would never see this. Bringing kids into the forces might work individually, but on a mass scale, the strength of the Army was certainly going to start cracking. He thought of Cody triumphantly exclaiming that the war was nearing its end, that they had almost won, and now more than ever desperately hoped his friend was right. But all of that depended on the success of this rapidly deteriorating mission Rex had found himself in charge of.
He pressed his face into his gloved hands. What could he do? He was stuck in an unfriendly biochemical weapons lab in the middle of a radioactive wasteland, and his chief mission operations specialist was out of commission. He was left with nothing but a squad of faulty half-droid adolescents and his own wits to eliminate the computer virus that was killing his brothers by the hundreds—thousands!—out on the front.
He had to get Echo back. He didn't want to admit it, but Rex did not trust himself to be able finish this alone. He needed him.
"Can you still access the building's general network?" Rex asked Twenty-Two, who had lapsed into a deferential silence.
"Yes, sir. Accessing now."
"Monitor those hallway doors. Make sure no one comes back this way."
"Yes, sir."
"And see if you can find somewhere nearby with medical scanning equipment!" Rex stood and faced Echo, looking at the implant. He forced himself to focus. It seemed like all the same lights were on or blinking as before, but how was he supposed to know? Even being able to diagnose Echo with medical scanners seemed like a long shot, but he had to do something.
"Yes, sir. Should we attempt to locate the real virus terminal?"
"No. I need you to assist me with Echo. You can make diagnostics I can't. You said you doubted your ability to go on with this on your own anyway. I would rather have you all safe where I can keep an eye on you so we can get right back on track once Echo comes back to himself." Rex put Echo's helmet back on, made sure it was secure, and took a slow breath to clear his head. "Are we clear to move out? Do we have a destination?"
"There is a small lab with medical equipment, one level down," he said. "The doors to that section were activated during the evacuation, which suggests the Mrlssi vacated it."
"Lock the doors until we're down there," Rex said, returning his own helmet. He pulled experimentally on one of Echo's arms. He could lift it away from Echo's side without much resistance, so he pulled it over his shoulders and placed his other hand squarely on Echo's back. "Which number are you?" he asked one of the commandos by the door.
"RC-Seven-Seven-Two-Three, Captain."
"Grab his arm, we'll walk him to the med bay. You," he said, gesturing to the third commando, "keep watch on our path with that bug."
"Yes, sir."
RC-7723 took Echo's other arm. Rex pulled him forward experimentally and Echo took a small, jerky step to correct his balance. It was going to be too slow. They would have to carry him.
"Okay. Let's go. Twenty-Two, take the rear guard."
Rex and RC-7723 lifted Echo into a seated carry and headed for the exit, Twenty-Two falling instep behind them, helmet replaced and back to a silent seriousness.
The hallway was clear when they filed out and fell back into formation. They went back the way they had come, shuffling as quickly as Rex and his commando could manage.
They made good time on the way to the stairwell to the lower level, the scout only giving each intersection a quick glance before beckoning them down the next hall. But Echo's dead weight slowed them down as they carefully went down the stairs, one step at a time. A full grown man in a heavy suit of armor—it wasn't easy, and Rex could tell the commando wasn't managing to carry a full half of the weight. At the bottom, Rex and his partner caught their breaths, and Rex nodded to their leading commando to check the door.
The hatch slid apart to reveal a hallway much more dimly lit than the one above. Only a third of the small square ceiling lights appeared to be working. Their bug whirred forward, and soon they were in pursuit.
Their steps echoed hollowly around them. Rex found it eerie, how compared to the upper level, this one seemed desolate. There were numerous doors on the walls with pitch-black windows that they could only hope were empty. Passing them felt like walking in front of gigantic eyes.
They had no choice but to keep going. Rex's scalp tingled, warning him of all the imaginary enemies that gathered in the shadows with each hollow scuffling of their boots.
A sharp clink sounded to their right. Everyone froze and spun. The scout switched on his headlamps, blaster raised; water dripped to the floor from an old cooling unit in the wall and rattled a piece of glass against the floor, loomed over by a vending machine. Clink.
"It's nothing," Rex breathed. "Everyone relax. Are we almost there?"
The commando turned back toward him and hugged his blaster into an aiming position. Rex reached for one of his pistols, not giving himself time to think.
A moment later a shot rang out, but the light of it came from behind Rex.
"What?!" He dropped Echo's arm and shoved him against the wall, simultaneously whirling about with a DC-17 aimed down the hall in the direction of the fire. The scout's headlamps fell on a juvenile Mrlssi, limp on the floor. One of the other commandos was standing over it.
"Sorry, Captain." Twenty-Two said. "We were being followed—"
The commando yelped as an arc of light burst from the wall and struck his foot. He lurched forward and broke his fall with his arms at the last second, rolling onto his back and returning fire at the shadows.
"They've got blasters!" Rex yelled. He scattered fire and the others followed his lead. "Grab the wounded and let's go! Go GO GO! You! Pick him up, pick him up!"
He grabbed Echo's arm again and dragged him forward on his own, sending shots behind him as best he could. There didn't seem to be any more coming from behind, but it was hard to tell in the dark, the headlamp flicking back and forth. RC-7723 was helping Twenty-Two and providing cover.
"Where are we going?" Rex yelled.
"Follow me!" their scout commando yelled, but skidded to a halt suddenly. "They're heading us off!"
"Keep moving!" Rex urged, shooting stun beams just past him to the quivering crowd of birds emerging from the dimly backlit opening at the other end of the hall. "If we can get to the medical lab, we can keep them out! Move it!"
The first wave of Mrlssi went down, and for a few seconds Rex thought they might be done. But one, two, then six more blaster bolts lit up the hall in eerie shadows and sent a red flash across feathered, scaly faces from below. Rex and the commandos shot down and then staggered their way through the pile of Mrlssi, struggling not to tread on the creatures' fragile bones. The stun effect might not last long—it always depended on the creature being shot.
On the other side, more Mrlssi scattered and shot wildly at them. Their scout rolled right past two of them and took them down with a swing of his heavily armored arms before disappearing through a door that slid open just in time. Rex half-threw Echo through the door and turned back to give covering fire to RC-7723 and Twenty-Two. A moment later, they were all inside; the door slid shut, and there was near silence but for Rex's panting.
"The door is locked," said RC-7723. The ceiling lights flickered on. "They shouldn't be able to override it. We're safe for the moment."
"Lucky they're not great shots," Rex said, exhaling, and he crouched to examine where the blaster had pierced Twenty-Two's armor. "Kind of like droids that way. You okay, kid?"
"He's fine," said RC-7723. "The damage is reparable."
Rex frowned at him. "That's gotta hurt, though." He stood back up, struck with a thought. "Can you all feel it when one of you is wounded?"
"We are aware, yes," said RC-7723.
"That's… not what I meant." Rex dropped it; there were more important things to focus on. Echo had managed to stay upright despite his violent entrance into the room, and was back to standing at attention.
The room was some kind of medical lab, to be sure, but it was small, and Rex felt his confidence wavering as his eyes wandered over the rudimentary equipment. He didn't have the first clue what they could use to fix or even diagnose Echo's problem. And now they'd blown one of the mission directives: don't draw the attention of the locals. It would be that much harder to get rid of the virus now. Feeling that things couldn't really go much worse at this point, Rex decided all they could really do is make do with what had happened. As long as they managed to stop that virus, nothing else really mattered. And they would, because they must.
"Search the room. Look for anything we can use to see what's going on with Echo's implant," Rex commanded. "You." He pointed at the one who was helping Twenty-Two into a chair. "Patch up your friend."
Rex walked over to a large device against the wall that seemed familiar. He'd seen the doctors on Coruscant use something like this to evaluate the damage in his leg after the explosion on Thisspias. But would that do Echo any good?
A heavy pounding came from the other side of the door. Angry screeches followed. Rex moved on to look at another piece of equipment.
"This will do." RC-7723 straightened from rummaging in a drawer of supplies, and pulled out a small electrical hub. "This is used for diagnosing flaws in cybernetic limbs."
The device was no bigger than Rex's thumb. "Do you know how to operate it?"
"It should connect directly to the implant. Then it transmits the results to the medical computer."
"Let's give it a shot," Rex said. They had nothing to lose. "Hook him up."
They managed to get Echo to sit on one of the beds. Rex took Echo's helmet off once more, and RC-7723 carefully aligned the device with some of the wires embedded in Echo's temple, then pressed the tiny switch on the back. The hub latched on and pierced Echo's skin with a superfine filament. Rex winced a little and turned on the medical computer.
"Alright, let's do this the old fashioned way, and hopefully the virus, or whatever is causing this, won't spread to you."
"We've regained access to ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight's implant," said RC-7723. "But we have no command over any of his functions."
"Is he infected? Are there any traces of the virus?"
"No, sir."
Rex groaned in tense exasperation. "Then why is he acting like this?"
"When the virus at the terminal made contact with the implant, the program that acts as a firewall was activated, as were ours, just as they are meant to be. But his aggressively attacked something else, some other device."
"Is he still in contact with the building's computer network? Shut down the connection!"
"No, Captain. He is no longer in active contact with any network. He is locked in standby."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Rex asked, staring at Echo's face. "How can you put a human being in 'standby' mode like he was some computer? He's still human! What other device could his implant be in conflict with?"
There was a brief pause, and in that space punctuated by the ruckus from outside, Rex felt the answer before it was even said.
"There is a chip," said RC-7723. "We ran a self-diagnostic, just now, and this chip doesn't exist in any of us but ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight. It seems to have been activated and is overriding all but ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight's life support systems."
Rex felt cold, his blood icy. The pounding on the door hadn't stopped. His stomach twisted itself into a knot so fast that it felt like someone had punched him there and left a bruise. He stared at one of his fists and tried to decide what to do. Perhaps this was what he had been waiting for.
"Can you tell what this chip is for?" he breathed.
"It appears to hook directly into the limbic system and frontal lobe, capable of suppressing or stimulating either one as necessary. At the moment, ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight's brain waves resemble those of a patient under hypnosis."
"Hypnosis?" Rex murmured to himself. The pounding on the door abruptly stopped, and he turned to face it.
"You haffve a wounded comrrrade?" one of the shrill voices unexpectedly switched to Basic. The consonants came out in grating squeaks and trills, the F sound turning into a whistle. "We will hhhelp you."
It would be an unforgivable diversion from the mission, but maybe this was his chance to get answers. The Mrlssi were scientists, and they were somewhere far from the ever watchful eye of GAR Command and Kaminoan doctors—even the Jedi council. If ever there was a place to study something in secret and not be hampered by bureaucracy or taboo, this could be it. But could the Mrlssi be trusted, especially after their fire fight? Their briefing about the situation with the aliens had not been accurate or complete, and Rex didn't know what to believe was true. The Mrlssi had shot at them, but they were trespassing in a sensitive area. It was a reasonable reaction. Rex and the commandos had only used stun bolts.
Rex paused, trying to lay out their options. Now that the Mrlssi were outside their door, secretly completing the mission was impossible. It seemed they had no choice but to negotiate, as fighting their way through the rest of it, surrounded by potentially lethal biochemicals and radiation, seemed completely impossible, even for him.
And the possibility of finally learning more about the nature of the chips, whether he and every other clone were a danger to the Jedi and the Republic, was too grave to ignore. If it was really all true, it would make this computer virus merely a bother in comparison.
"Why arrre you hhhere? Why do you sn-n-neakkk arrround?" The clicking of a beak came through clearly, almost like a laugh. "Itsss fverrrry dan-gerousss!"
"We came," Rex tried, "to seek assistance."
The Mrlssi really did laugh now, a squawking laugh. "You come to spy-y on us. You haffve been sent by-y the ennnemy!"
Rex was afraid of saying the wrong thing. He didn't know who the Mrlssi considered the enemy to be. Before he made a political disaster of what scanty relations the Anaxsi and Mrlssi had, he needed more information. He was loathe to do it given the state of the mission, but maybe he wouldn't have to say too much. It was time to check in with General Skywalker, and—Rex glanced at Echo—maybe a quick call would give them some other answers too.
He leaned against the other hospital bed, across from Echo, and pulled out his holoprojector, ignoring the intermittent speech from the other side of the door as the Mrlssi squawked amongst themselves and tried to elicit further conversation from Rex. It would probably take a few minutes at least for Skywalker to answer the call, if he was able to at all. Who knew what kind of battle or stealth operation he might be in the middle of?
To Rex's relief, the general's hologram materialized within seconds. He stood straight and composed; that was good. "Rex. Good of you to call back. I tried to get through to you a few minutes ago, but I guess you were busy."
Rex glanced at Echo, but there was no sign on his face that he was even aware of the hologram in Rex's hand, let alone a violent reaction at the sight of a Jedi. And right now, there was no way to tell if it would be different in person.
"Things haven't gone exactly as planned, General," Rex admitted in a low voice, hoping the Mrlssi wouldn't be able to make out his conversation. "One of my men is injured, Echo's been incapacitated, and there's been some resistance from the locals."
"The locals?" Skywalker held up his hands. "Hold on. Start from the beginning."
"Yes, sir. We've traced the source of the virus to a facility in a locked down city on Anaxes. The city was supposedly poisoned by radiation years ago, but there's a group of Mrlssi here that managed to survive, and they don't seem to agree with the Anaxsi government. That's the story we were given. We made it into the city undetected, we found the source of the virus, but Echo's cybernetics malfunctioned and we were detected. We're currently holding our position in a small medical lab."
"That's not good news," Skywalker said bitterly. "I was just contacted by the chancellor. Losing so many ships means we're losing ground in the Outer Rim, and fast. He's concerned about how your mission is going. Are you saying you need a hand? Lieutenant Appo and I are just finishing up here with that Verpine engineer. But it'll take some time to get back to Anaxes."
"We're not in any immediate danger, General," Rex said. "But… the truth is, our intel about this mission was extremely poor. I don't know whether it was by design, or if the Anaxsi government is unaware of what's going on here."
"What is it, Rex?" Skywalker's brow was furrowed.
"We were told the Mrlssi were mere leftovers of an old scientific partnership, that their occupation of this city was by choice… and we were given the distinct impression that their existence here was of little importance, civilian…."
"But?"
"Well," Rex felt uncomfortable divulging this information. He didn't want to put the general in danger by knowing something he shouldn't. "There's… a thriving science facility here. A lab. I'm not sure what they are doing, but it looks serious, and it seemed to me that they may be constructing some kind of bio-weapon, although on whose authority, and for the use against whom, is a mystery to me, given the shoddy briefing we were given."
"What?" Skywalker almost laughed. "You're kidding. A bio-weapon? A biochemical weapon? For all of our sakes, I hope you're wrong, Rex. I'll… discreetly see if I can find out whether the Anaxsi are aware of this. If not, I will go to the chancellor himself. In the meantime, Rex, you must figure out a way to take down that computer virus. We still don't know where our Verpine fits into all of this, so don't count on your feathered associates being friends or foes just yet. They might not even be aware of the virus, though I admit it seems unlikely."
"But sir," Rex hesitated. "…I'm… not sure how to proceed."
"I'll have to leave that up to your judgment, Rex. I would say completing this mission is more important than upsetting political alliances on Anaxes, but given what you've said…. Well, be careful. And don't provoke them, not until we know what is really going on. You're a smart man, Rex. I know you will figure out a way to complete this mission. The navy is counting on you."
"Understood," Rex said, wishing he felt Skywalker's confidence. "One more thing, General, before you go… could you try giving Echo a direct order? Maybe it'll snap him out of this trance."
"So you're sure he's Echo, now?" Skywalker raised his eyebrows. "I guess I'll have to ask for the full story when you get back. Okay. Let's give it a try."
Rex turned the holoprojector and lifted it so it was in range of Echo's face.
"Echo? Can you hear me?" Skywalker called. Echo blinked, but his eyes continued to stare stubbornly past the hologram. "Echo, I order you to tell me your number."
Nothing.
Rex sighed. "It was worth a shot. Thanks, General."
"Good luck," said Skywalker, looking a bit mystified. "Hang in there, Captain."
As soon as the hologram disappeared, Rex put in a call to Admiral Bet.
"Yes, Captain?" she said, with that same gravity he had felt in the briefing room. "Have you made any progress?"
"We've determined that the virus is coming from a communications terminal in the center of this city," Rex said carefully.
"Good. Were you able to remove it?"
"No, sir. Unfortunately, we were detected, and the Mrlssi became hostile. We've locked ourselves into a building, but a number of the Mrlssi are aware of us now."
"I'm disappointed, Captain," said Bet tiredly. "But what's done is done. How do you plan to proceed?"
"I suggest we tell them that we know about the virus, and offer them leniency as a reward if they allow us within range to remove it."
"You put too much faith in them. Normally Mrlssi are a cultured and rational species. But this group has proven to be the opposite. I doubt they will agree to negotiate."
"All the same… do I have your permission to make an attempt at negotiations, sir?" Rex tried.
Admiral Bet sighed roughly. "I suppose it can't do any more harm than has been done already. You may proceed."
"Thank you, Admiral."
The hologram vanished without a parting word from Bet.
Rex put the projector away and took a moment to consider his options, studying his blasters to keep his eyes from straying back to Echo's face. The Mrlssi on the other side of the door had gone silent, no doubt having been attempting to eavesdrop on his conversations. Rex went back to the door.
"Hello?" he called.
"You haffve called reinffforcements!" one of them crowed.
"No!" Rex cried. "No, I was—listen, we need your help, it's true. One of our members is incapacitated and we don't understand what has happened to him. We hoped you might know something since you're familiar with biology."
"But, why arrre you here? No one comes to this-s place!"
"There's… a computer virus. It's…." Rex sighed. "It's killing my family," he said, feeling the words awkwardly in his mouth, hoping they would illicit some sympathy. "Their ships are dead in space, and they're dying."
"Whattt does this haffve to do with us?!"
"I don't know! All I know is that we found that the virus was transmitting from somewhere here and the only way to save them is to kill the virus at the source. Do you know where it is?"
"We haffve no knowleddge of this!"
"It's true!" Rex said. "You can check yourself! That's why we're here. But now my brother is ill. Maybe you can help him. Maybe we can make an exchange. Is there anything you want?"
Rex felt guilty, knowing he had no way of keeping his side of any bargain they made. But this was no time to feel regret. Too much was at stake to worry about a few disappointed Mrlssi.
The Mrlssi warbled at each other in their native tongue before one of them spoke again.
"We need trrade partners-s! Always lacking in bas-sic suppliess! We hhhave no sup-port!"
Rex wasn't sure this was entirely true. Whoever was responsible for this lab's operations must be supplying them with the rations they saw before. But it didn't matter. "I have an associate, a close friend," Rex started, "he's a very skilled smuggler. I can put a word in for you. He could at least bring you something—a lot of something! That would last you a while."
"This-s is not ideal for usss… but perhhhaps it is a st-art. Let us in, we will look at your bro-ther!"
Rex motioned for RC-7723 to stand aside with pistols ready in case they turned aggressive. Rex was certain that if it came down to it, they would outlast the birds in a fight, but he would rather not make it to that point. Cautiously, Rex opened the door.
Immediately the front Mrlssi squawked and recoiled.
"Youu! You are a soldier!"
"Yes!" Rex said, throwing his hands up, "But I need your help! Everything I said was true!" The pang of guilt stirred in him again but he ignored it.
"The Ann-naxsi sent Rrrepublic arrrmy clones. They marrrked us as en-nemies long ago."
"I don't know anything about that," Rex tried. "We're just here to stop the computer virus. We were ordered not to harm you. We only returned stun bolts before in self defense, and your friends should be fine. We're at your mercy now."
The Mrlssi didn't seem particularly ready to fire shots, but they were a rather loud and reactive group. They tittered anxiously.
"This, your bro-ther?" One went over next to Echo and peered into his face.
"Yes," Rex said. "He's…."
"Cy-borg!" The Mrlssi seemed delighted rather than disgusted, but Rex couldn't be certain.
"Yes…."
The birds once again erupted in warbling commentary and Rex wondered what they were saying.
"There's a chip," he said cautiously. "In his head. It's… malfunctioning. We're not sure what it's even for. Do you have any way of diagnosing its purpose?"
"Perr-haps," the interested Mrlssi near Echo said. Its feathers were green and downy, its lab scrubs clean. It pulled a silver device from a drawer that looked like a large leggy spider with tiny needles at the feet. Rex felt helpless at the trust he had to put in these potential enemies, but he had to know if they could find something. The Mrlssi applied the device around Echo's skull, and it hugged his head tightly.
"I'll keep monitoring ARC-Zero-Four-Zero-Eight's brain activity," RC-7723 said quietly to Rex, and he wondered if that was his way of trying to comfort him.
The Mrlssi turned on another holo display and the entire flock of scientists crowded around it.
"This maaay take some hhhtime!" the green Mrlssi said.
Rex desperately hoped it would not take too much. He was not sure how long Admiral Bet would allow them to loiter in Drann, especially once General Skywalker started poking around. It all depended on the true benefactor of the Mrlssi's labwork. But right now, those concerns seemed distant. All Rex really cared about in the moment was finally uncovering the truth of the chips, and putting at least some of his uncertainty to rest. Perhaps they would discover it really was nothing more than an inhibitor chip, and although it pained Rex to think Fives really had just gone mad, Rex dared not hope Fives' beliefs had been right. Because if they were, Rex already knew he would have no idea how to stop it.