A/N: This is one of two chapters I will be posting today. These two chapters are mainly written from Echo's POV, except for a switch toward the end of the second chapter where Rex tells a piece of the story and then Cody tells the rest of it. Echo is a major player in Rex II so it is interesting to write from his perspective. Even without being captured on the Citadel and turned into a cyborg, he is a very unique clone.
"This is the anomaly you discovered?" Cody questioned, staring at a holographic image of the chips. He walked around the image, studying it from every angle.
Echo shook his head. "It's more than that, Commander," he stepped forward, bumping Fives aside with an elbow to his well-armored ribs. His brother grumbled good-naturedly, but it was all for show.
Ever since the whole almost dying on Kaz'haria thing, Fives had a new level of patience with him. It had been a bit unnerving at first, but now Echo liked this change in their relationship. His brother was even requesting he read to him from the reg manuals, (although it seemed he only did it when he had trouble sleeping.) Still, he was closer now to Fives than ever, and he hadn't thought that was possible. He'd come very close to dying in that lab, and Fives seemed almost desperate to make the most of the time they had left. While he hadn't enjoyed the almost dying part, he did like all the added warmth and attention from Fives. It gave him the confidence he didn't have before, even as an ARC trooper. Fives even accused him of swaggering now when he walked. Maybe he did. But, then again, he was finally feeling like he'd earn his place in the 501st.
Rex looked over at him and gave him a nod of approval and encouragement to go on. His actions at Darkknell had won him unilateral respect. It was the most prized commodity of all amongst troopers. Now that he had it, he was more determined than ever to do all he could to protect his brothers.
Something significant had happened to him in that lab. He'd stumbled into something. It was more than turning off the cryseefa gas that would suffocated all of the men in the 501st and 212th. No. That lab was buried in the deepest level of the Kaz'harian fortress. It was a research lab and he'd seen a glimpse of something before he'd been attacked. Something that tied all of this together.
If only he'd had more time to study that screen before he'd taken a knife to the gut.
No time for 'if only…' he chastised himself. I can figure this out. No, we can figure this out together.
This is personal. I'm in the thick of this thing. Whatever happened to me in that lab is somehow connected to all these pieces we're uncovering now. We just haven't connected it all together… yet.
His hands flew over the controls with the practiced ease of someone who spent too much time on a datapad. He overlaid an image of a clone brain on top of the chip and then expanded both images so it was clear to see the location of this new discovery.
"When we first discovered one of these in my brain, Commander, we thought it was just an anomaly. But, it's more. So much more. We think… eh… we all have them." Cody sucked in such a sharp breath it seemed to take all the air out of the room. Echo quickly continued on, trying to best explain what they'd discovered. "They're chips. Biological chips." He zoomed the image in even further. "They're embedded here- deep in our neural systems. We couldn't detect them using normal scans, so we had to- eh-"
Krek, was it okay to tell the highest-ranking clone in the fleet they'd been skirting regs?
"Hack systems," Sly filled in cheerfully.
Damnit Sly! They needed to have a serious talk with the shiny. They were all going to be scrubbing floors in the mess for the next half-cycle if he didn't keep his mouth shut.
Echo shot an alarmed look at the Captain and Commander. Rex's lips twitched with displeasure. No. Amusement? It was hard to tell with Rex. Commander Cody, though, his face was an unreadable mask.
In an impressive display of dexterity, Fives subtly kicked the shiny in the back of the shins (to tell him to shut it) and kneed Echo in his armored backside (to tell him to get on with it.)
Rex's lips twitched. Again. Maybe that was an amused twitch? Too karkin' hard to tell.
Echo cleared his throat and spoke quickly to make up for lost time. "Ah, yes, we used L5… uh, that is Level 5 scans at ArmyMed. We don't have that here so we had to get creative. These are deeper level brain scans than normal and all the medics said their reg manuals-"
"We are forbidden from doing Level 5 scans," Sly chimed in, completely unconcerned he was telling their two highest-ranking officers they were deliberately skirting regs. "ArmyMed has the technology to do it. But, only a high-ranking doctor with special clearance can read the scans. It doesn't make sense because those types of scans could be life-saving for troopers in the field and we're not allowed to do them."
Cody frowned deeply. "So, you did unauthorized scans."
"Yes," Echo confirmed, gulping deeply. He could already feel the callouses on his hands from the floors he would be scrubbing for the rest of his unnaturally short life. He wanted to glance back and get some reading on the Rex lip twitch scale but didn't dare look away from the commander. "But, sir, we couldn't have gotten as far as we did without doing the-"
"Unauthorized scans," Cody interrupted impatiently, with another wave of his hand, "I understand." He stepped into the holoscan until he was completely enveloped by the brain diagram. He expanded the scan to the highest resolution and looked at the cerebral cortex critically. "But, what is the purpose of this chip?"
There was something about his voice; a warning, perhaps? Echo had still been down on Corrie when the Commander had been shot. But, at an order from Rex, they'd gotten deeply involved in the aftermath of his shooting. It was clear there was someone out to get the commander and it was hard not to take something like that personally. The training accident that was no accident had been a favorite topic in the rumor mill for weeks.
Knowing he was treading on a delicate subject matter, Echo proceeded as tactfully as he could. "Before we get into the purpose of the chips, I must emphasize it is intentionally disguised to hide its' true nature." Cody gave him an impatient wave of the hand to get on with it. "Right. OK, so they're disguised-"
"Wait– " Cody's brow creased as the implication suddenly sank in. "Why change something about us and then disguise it? The rest of our DNA modifications all seem to be selling points in the eyes of the Kaminoans."
"Yes, that's one of the things that's odd about these chips. We had to dig very deeply to even find a mention of them anywhere. There is a record of them," Echo continued, "we found reference to a database that-"
"The Kaminoans call them 'inhibitor chips," Sly burst in, so excited by the subject material, he couldn't contain himself any longer. "We believe- or, at least I strongly believe- the chips can force us to exhibit new behavior. But, I don't see why the Kaminoans would plant chips in us to inhibit us. Aggressive behavior would be desirable in a soldier."
Cody stared down the new medic. "Sly, right?"
The young medic nodded eagerly, pleased the commander knew him by name.
"You were one of the medics who saved me at ArmyMed," Cody gave a small respectful nod of his head.
Sly's face lit up with pleasure at the slight gesture of praise.
Echo huffed inwardly with amusement. That was it. There would be no stopping Sly now.
"In answer to your question, the counterpoint to aggression is the need to follow orders. A command structure is based upon the basic tenant orders must be followed."
Sly eagerly nodded his head and took a deep breath. Echo recognized this as a sign he was about to launch in a carefully crafted argument to prove his point. "I agree, Commander. We're carefully designed to be more obedient than Jango through DNA selection. It is well-documented the Kaminoans went through several batches and iterations of clones before they arrived upon us. In essence, the undesirable Jango qualities have been bred out of us." He jammed a thumb into his chest for emphasis. "We are an idealized version of a soldier, carefully crafted for the needs of a mass military. All of our behavior is further reinforced through a decade of rigorous training that begins before we even leave our tubes. We have no need for inhibitor chips."
"I agree," Fives took a half-step forward so he was crowded shoulder-to-shoulder with Echo, "we were perfected. The Kaminoans are obsessive about the details. We are the results of years of careful quality control."
"It's an ongoing process," Rex grumbled under his breath.
Iron shook his head and pointed a finger at Sly and then the chip. "I disagree. Your theory stretches things too far. This chip only enforces our other behaviors like our training and DNA selection does, nothing more."
Sly shook his head and launched back into a counter-argument with Iron. "No, it's more than that, because we have no need-"
Echo tuned out the arguments of his brothers and focused on the commander instead. He was scowling deeply as he stared at the holoimage surrounding him. His face was outlined in blue light, as he stepped so close to the chip it was overlaid on top of him. The effect of the lighting and the chip made him look eerily droid-like.
Cody put up a hand, immediately silencing the arguing medics. "Sly… you said this chip could force a clone to exhibit new behavior. Something they wouldn't normally do?"
Iron opened his mouth to object, but Cody put up his index finger to silence him. He nodded to Sly to go.
"Under the right circumstances, this chip could subjugate a clone's free will." Iron opened his mouth to object again, but Sly stared him down. He was holding fast to his opinion. "I'm sure of it, sir, based upon the location of this chip it could have no other function.
"Subjugate a clone's will," the 212th Commander repeated in a clipped tone, "as in taking over their brain?"
Echo exchanged a quick look with Rex, knowing exactly where this line of questioning was headed. He and Fives had been in that surgery suite when the commander had nearly bled out on the table. He was about to step in and answer the commander's question, but Kix beat him to it.
"All of this area here we've been talking about, sir, is the decision-making part of the brain. If you overrule normal behaviors with the implantation of a neural chip, the subject would exhibit abnormal behaviors," Kix explained.
"Or, to put it more simply," Iron grumbled as if finally accepting Sly's theory, "yes, a clone could be controlled."
Sly shot Iron a grateful look at the show of support and didn't waste a beat before continuing on with his explanation. "Once the chip takes control of the pre-frontal cortex, the subject- in this case, a clone- or, I guess, maybe even all clones- would not be aware of what is happening. They would think the thoughts and decisions are their own."
"The whole fekkin' clone army," Cody inhaled sharply.
Rex had listened in tight-lipped silence up until now, his expression grim and controlled. He stepped closer to the holo diagram now and stared at the chip and then turned to address the medics. "Yes, but why put chips in us if we're already trained to obey orders?"
"There's something more going on here, Rex," Fives addressed his brother directly and informally, in the way he did when he was very intent on something.. "These control chips must have a very intentional purpose."
"But, what? And, who or what controls them?" Rex's voice expressed the tension and frustration they were all feeling. "We don't have much time to figure this out. We're about to head into an extended campaign and all of you need to be out in the field."
"We were discussing the option of trying to trigger one," Fives started. "If we can figure out how to activate one, then we'll know for sure what they do-"
Kix shook his head. "It's precisely because we don't know how to trigger them, it's much too dangerous to attempt to do so. What if the chips are even more sinister than we've discussed?" He dove into the topic with all of the intensity of a medic concerned for the life of his patient, something Echo had seen him do many times. Except- Echo suddenly realized- the patient in this case was the entire clone army. "There could be a kill switch - the Kaminoans may have wanted a way to de-activate all of us at once, like the droid army-"
Cody put up a hand and stopped Kix mid-sentence. This was impressive as Kix generally ruled the medbay no matter who came in. It spoke volumes of his respect for Commander Cody that he was immediately quiet.
Cody dipped his chin toward Kix. "The kill switch is an interesting theory. It is terrifying enough the Kaminoans likely must have considered it in some form in our design. They are too fiendish about quality control to do otherwise. However, I don't think that is the primary purpose of these chips. I believe all of you are right. These chips can change our behavior and make us do things All of you were onto something the first time. I think these chips can change our behavior and make us do things we wouldn't ordinarily do." He rubbed a thumb against his chest plate. "And, I think it's already happened."