Star Wars: The Bad Batch

In Secret

by Gabrielle Lawson

Chapter NineTech pulled up one of the last requisitions before what he called R day. Because that was the day they would revolt or they'd be rescued. Or maybe both. He had finally thought of a way to get a message out that hopefully would reach Captain Rex indirectly. Then Tech had to hope Rex would figure out what to do with it. Only the issue of location remained. How to transmit coordinates or somehow let Rex know where they were? But that wasn't a task for today.

Crosshair's armor and weapons had not come with the last batch of requested supplies. But in checking incoming messages he'd found that there was a delay. They would come. He just hoped they'd be here in time.

This requisition had to include everything else from Nala Se's list for him. And, or course, more Methysergide. Tech hoped that nearly every Imperial on the base would be fully incapacitated on R day. He checked over the requisitions and closed the file. It would be sent out in the morning. There would be one more right before R day. The supplies requested on it would arrive after R day, however, so everything he or his people needed had to be in these requisitions. There was a lot riding on them. They had to be perfect.

Rafa growled, which stopped her teeth from chattering for a few seconds. "The things we do for Rex!" she exclaimed at a whisper. "He said it would be cold, but this is ridiculous."

Trace pulled the macrobinoculars from her eyes. "Minimal guard. Looks like they cleared most of the place out."

"That helps," Rafa retorted. "But only so much. We have to have fingers to attach the beacon." She blew on her hands and rubbed them together. She reached for the macrobinoculars when she heard blaster fire. It looked like some insurgents were attacking the base. "That's is our way in. Let's move."

They skirted the blaster fire staying low and under a ledge of ice until they were within twenty meters of the side of the base. There were still three ships on the landing strip. But only one was being loaded, and it was closest to the building. She held up a hand to stop Trace as she watched the troopers on the field. There was an explosion and one of the ships went up in flames. She pointed forward and the sisters went over the ledge and ran alongside the building until they could get inside. All the nearby troopers were outside.

There were crates lined up, waiting to be loaded. Trace scanned each one as Rafa kept a lookout. She hoped the insurgents kept those troopers busy.

"It's not here. Maybe they loaded it."

Rafa checked the macrobinoculars again. There were multiple crates in and just outside the closest ship. But Rex had said the base wasn't supplied from here normally. It would only be getting one crate. She scanned the last remaining ship. And there was one dark crate loaded inside its open door. It just couldn't have been easy.

"Give me the beacon," she told Trace. "Go back out the way we came in."

"What are you doing?" Trace said, holding her arm. "You can't go out there."

"Someone has to. It's right there on the second ship," Rafa told her. "The troopers are busy with the insurgents. But they won't be for long. Give me the beacon and I can make it."

Trace frowned but handed it over. "You'd better." She squeezed her arm then went out and to the left. Rafa ran straight out to the first ship. She used it for cover as she watched the troopers. Her heart was pounding in her chest. At least she didn't feel as cold as before. She raced to the second ship and checked the troopers again. They had stopped shooting. She hopped in, opened the crate, shoved the beacon in, closed it and, jumped back out. She darted for the first ship. Then from there she raced to the side of the building without looking back.

Her throat was burning as she slipped over ledge. Trace grabbed her in a hug. "They were coming back!" she whispered.

"I made it, didn't I?" Rafa retorted, trying to sound confident. She was very relieved. "Let's get off this ice ball of planet."

Crosshair wished the guards here would remove their helmets now and then. It was hard to tell how they were feeling from outside their armor. But there were clues, though they were very subtle. They fidgeted when holding attention, like they just couldn't stand still. Their weapons rattled quietly against their armor. And they weren't as chatty as they used to be, not that they were talkative before. Now they rarely said a word to him. Suffering in silence.

They were only about ten rotations from the end of the second cycle. And Omega's notes had been clear. This process would take two cycles. He really hoped Tech's end game was going to be a good one. And he really hoped he'd be the one to personally take out Hemlock.

He smiled for the kitchen workers as he arrived for the first meal. They looked a bit green all told. One even had to excuse himself. Crosshair didn't mind stepping in to help. It was so much easier to inject the contents of the pouches into the containers when he was the one filling them. He pushed on his left sleeve to ensure all the contents went into the container, then he slipped the cap on the end. He didn't want to accidentally prick himself. He stirred the contents of the container to spread it evenly and to keep everything at an even temperature. Then he covered the container and placed it on his cart. Then he went back and retrieved the next container from the worker. "Thank you for your help," the head worker told him.

"Happy to be useful," Crosshair replied. And his guards didn't even chastise him from their spot by the door. You are pitiful guards, Crosshair thought to them. He often dreamed of how he could kill them in the corridors. But that would mess up Tech's plan. He had to keep delivering the poison. So he had to stay on his best behavior.

He placed the containers on the table in Galley One. He set the poisoned one down with extra care. He even opened all the containers for the poor, sickly workers. Then he and his entourage went back to kitchen for Galley Two's breakfast. He wouldn't adulterate anything there. Omega ate breakfast there when she ate breakfast. He couldn't see her or Emerie waiting today. He disposed of the used pouch in the garbage receptacle then left with his cart. His right sleeve still had a full pouch waiting for Galley Three.

Captain Rex smiled as he watched the screen and the little red dot that showed itself leaving Barton IV. It would go to wherever the secret base was supplied from. Then on to the secret base. Rex had a feeling that this was the base they had been looking for. Hemlock's base. He had Crosshair, so it made sense that Crosshair's gear was going to his base. Rex didn't know why he wanted it. Crosshair being a prisoner pointed to a Crosshair that had decided against the Empire. Bringing his gear to his location could mean he'd been brought back into the fold. He would be a powerful alley, but he was a deadly enemy. He remembered Hunter saying he could hit his target ten klicks out. That was astounding, and somewhat frightening.

He dispatched two clones in a small ship to tail that little dot at a distance. They weren't to engage. They had to let it reach its first destination and move on to its final one. Then they were to recon the situation and report back. Once they confirmed it was the right base, they could make a plan to get their people out of Hemlock's clutches. And maybe find out if Echo's faith was worth it.

Emerie felt a little ridiculous. She shouldn't be feeling jealous of a young girl who was held against her will in order to keep her friends in line. But Omega had friends. Family, she called them. She fiercely loved Tech and strangely cared for Crosshair. She'd even told Emerie stories of Crosshair trying to kill or capture them. The one where the squad got their inhibitor chips removed was quite exciting and dangerous. They'd escaped through an ion engine. Tech had given them their only way out when Crosshair's people started firing up the engine. They had to set off explosives all around it.

It had been dangerous, but Omega was free with her brothers then. She played dejarik and ate Mantell Mix. They had managed to desert the Empire and survive for dozens of cycles before Hemlock came along. While Emerie had just put her head down and done what she was told after the Republic Medical Corps was changed to the Imperial Medical Corps.

People still fell sick or got injured. Physicians were still needed. Her work didn't have to change. She could make the best of a bad situation. At least that's what she told herself. She heard her leaders call the clones property or just "it." And it bristled but she hid it. She had hoped to stay on Coruscant, but she was assigned to Doctor Hemlock and this base instead. She'd tried to look him up, to get to know his record. But she only found one article about his expulsion from the Republic Science Corp for unorthodox experiments. The Republic had expelled him, but the Empire put him in charge of an entire base. That should have told her all she needed to know.

But some of the patients she treated in Coruscant had been refugees. And they spoke of the trauma of their homes being overrun and taken over by the Empire. World after world after world after world. And so Emerie had told herself the Empire was too big, too far-reaching. She couldn't outrun it She couldn't fight it. She didn't know how to fight at all. She would become one of the refugees—or one of the dead. So she focused on her work and not what Hemlock wanted to do with the clones that were transported into the base. Or even the beast one floor below.

But Omega, even as young as twelve, was out there, fighting, living free. Her brothers had trained her to fight and even how to fly their ship. She'd been the one to set the beacon on Hemlock's shuttle on Eriadu. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was better to be imprisoned as a good person than to be free and associated with bad ones.

Only if that were the case, she'd come to the realization too late. She still believed what she told Crosshair the day he'd attempted to escape. There was no way out of the base without being hunted down and punished. Maybe if she could've run from Coruscant, but she couldn't run from Mount Tantiss.

It was time. Two rotations until R day. Nala Se had told Hemlock that she needed certain chemicals they didn't have on hand. He put in a requisition to get those chemicals brought to the base. That requisition was sent out two hours ago. So now it was time to send an addendum. He quickly worked up a communique to the officer up in Communications. It listed an additional quantity of one of those chemicals needed urgently. This was to be called in live, to ensure it would be shipped with the previously requested supplies.

He forged Hemlock's credentials and sent it up to be sent from Emerie's account. Then he pulled up the camera in Communications and watched in real time as the officer pulled up the request. He read it over then opened a channel. As he read off the request in the live call, Tech waited until he got to the additional quantity and removed the encryption just as the man requested amount and encrypted it again until he said when they needed it. The officer closed the call.

"Sir!" one of the troopers called out. "Part of that was unencrypted!"

"That's impossible," the officer stated. "Check again." He was sweating.

"It's strange," the trooper reported. "It started encrypted then it dropped the encryption, picked it up again, and dropped it again."

"Can we," the officer began, breathing hard. He adjusted his collar then tried again. "Can we recall it or delete it?"

"No, sir," the trooper replied. "It's sent. It was a live call."

"Then there's nothing we can do," the officer stated, trying to sound confident as he frantically tried to purge the record of the call showing the encryption issues. He ran into an error. "Carry on." He tried again, and this time, Tech obliged him and deleted the record. The officer didn't need to be called on the carpet over this. He'd most likely be dead in two rotations.

Sev was shocked when part of the call came in crystal clear even before he'd run the decryption algorithm. He froze. That wasn't supposed to happen. What had it said? He ran the algorithm and played it from the start to memorize the words that had come through clearly. "1409 CCs" and "in two rotations." Rex would definitely want to know about this.