Bad Batch 6 - Omega's Holiday
"Hello? Anyone home?"
Hunter rushed out from a back room. "Echo! We didn't know you were coming."
"I had no choice. Omega insisted I be here. She invited Rex too, but he's busy. Has she told you what she's got planned for tomorrow?"
"No clue, she just said that we all had to be here for dinner. She won't say why. School just got out, so she should be here any moment."
That moment was now. "Echo!" Omega cried as she rushed in for a hug. "I'm so glad you came."
"I received a direct order; I couldn't refuse."
"Yep. You can help Hunter and Crosshair put tables together. We'll need space for," Omega paused to do the math, "eleven people."
"Eleven? What are you up to?" Hunter asked.
"It's a surprise! I just need the tables done by midday tomorrow."
"Yes ma'am," Echo said. "Good soldiers follow orders."
Just after lunch the next day, Wrecker and Claris arrived followed soon after by Lyana and then Kyra, who carried a large bucket of mixed flowers.
"Hey babe," Kyra greeted Hunter with a kiss. "Yes, I know, and yes, I'm sworn to secrecy. It's going to be great."
"Whatever you say. Wrecker, you can help us with the tables."
"We're going to need help hanging the string lights. Someone who can reach pretty high," Lyana said, looking at Wrecker.
"You got it boss! Whenever you're ready."
The women huddled, whispering and looking towards the table with Omega pointing to various places. An agreement was reached, and the group separated to their assigned tasks. Lyana instructed Wrecker on the placement of the string lights and conscripted the other men to help. She and Kyra then set about tying the flowers into long bunches. These too were give to Wrecker to place.
"You can just hang them here and there, you know randomly," Kyra instructed.
Wrecker looked up at the lights, confused. "Uh, what?"
Kyra basically read his thoughts. "No, not in a row; these aren't soldiers. Okay, put one here…and here…and here…" Soon, all were suspended from the wires of the string lights.
"Oh yeah, this looks great. Thanks!
Mid-afternoon, Shep arrived. Greeting everyone, he noted, "I'm the consultant. Omega's cooking, but I volunteered to help. She also invited Lyana and me to the dinner."
"You have no idea what she's up to?" Hunter asked.
"I do, but I can't say."
Echo shook his head. "So it's just us four who are in the dark apparently. She hasn't said anything to you?" he asked, looking at Crosshair.
"I know as much as you do. I've been ordered to be here."
Dinner time. Omega indicated where everyone was to sit with her at the head, Hunter to her right, and Tech's goggles on the table at the place setting on her left. The rest of the Batch were seated at the other spots closest to her. Kyra, Claris, Phee, Lyana, and Shep filled in with Shep at the opposite end from Omega.
"Um, excuse me!" she called.
"Quiet!" Wrecker bellowed.
Omega smiled. "Thanks Wrecker. Welcome everyone. So yeah, this is my surprise. I got the idea from some of the other events we've had. As everyone knows, we're Clones," she said, indicating with a sweep of her hand the men sitting near her. "As Clones, we don't have birthdays or any kind of traditional holiday, so I've made one. This is Found You Day. Actually, the day was yesterday, but I had school, so we're celebrating today. This is the sixth anniversary of the day I found Experimental Unit Clone Force 99 again on Kamino when I introduced myself to them in the corridor after Palpatine's big announcement as Emperor.
"I said I found them again. Uh, for those of you who don't know the whole story, I was created first in Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se's private lab in the Clone compound in Tipoca City on Kamino. I was alone there for a long time until four defective Clone embryos were brought in. As Nala Se later explained, she styled each with certain enhancements, and I watched them grow into these guys, except for Echo. He joined the team later.
"At some point, the Clones were removed from the lab and taken elsewhere to complete their training. I was alone again, but I vowed I would find my brothers again. Um, you guys can jump in whenever you'd like if you have anything to add," she directed to the squad.
For the next several minutes, the saga continued.
"...I was standing up front by Nala Se when I saw them again after so long. Hunter saw me too."
"...I tried to calm things down, but a set of trays hurdled through the air and hit the guy in the head. We all turned. As you can guess, Wrecker."
"Oh yeah!"
"I tried to be the mature one and stay out of it."
"Yeah, until I landed in your soup!"
"...Tech even joined in the fight; that was a sight."
"...And I started the whole thing!"
"Yeah, I would have never thrown those trays if it hadn't been for Omega's bad influence."
A chorus of "yeah, right" and laughter.
"I've never heard this story," Claris commented.
"Well," Wrecker responded, "We weren't always as well mannered as you might think."
Much laughter.
"...I refused to leave Echo while he was unconscious."
"...Tarkin talked openly in front of me. He hated the Clones, and I figured that it was dangerous to be on Kamino. We had to leave, so I got up my courage to talk to Hunter. I told him not to come back or maybe take me with them."
"...We realized that Omega was right. Tech meanwhile had analyzed Omega's DNA and saw that she was the fifth enhanced Clone since Echo was a reg, I mean, a regular Clone, not defective like us. I told the squad we had to go back and get Omega."
"...AZ and I looked around their barracks, okay snooped. I wanted to find out more about them, what they were like. I found a photo of the squad in Hunter's locker, sorry Hunter. You know, in that photo, Tech didn't have his goggles on. It was kind of strange. Troopers came in and found me and threw me in the brig."
"...in the meantime, the Empire figured out what we had already suspected, that Crosshair's inhibitor chip, the chip the Kaminoans put in all Clones to control them, was partially working. The rest of us though, didn't have chips that worked, probably because of our enhancements, and Echo's chip had apparently been made inactive. Crosshair's chip, though, seemed to be working somewhat, so when we were arrested, they separated Crosshair from us, and as we later figured out, strengthened his chip so they could control him even more. Because of that, and uh, the fire fight, we were forced to escape without him, but we didn't do it willingly. The plan had been to find him and take him with us."
"...I had never seen dirt before! I had no idea of the concept!
"...I was worth much more than 2000 credits!"
"...we almost died three times!"
"Oh come on Bandana, you loved it."
"...and Phee brought us here!"
"...you and Lyana were our first friends here."
"...It was a mission to get information to rescue Crosshair. Tech sacrificed himself for us."
Momentary silence.
"...After all we did for her, Cid sold us out to the Empire, and I was captured and taken to Tantiss, the secret base where the Empire did genetic experiments. That's where I saw Crosshair and vowed that we'd escape together."
"It was all Omega. I was just along for the ride."
"That's not true! You're the one who thought of Plan 72. We basically stole the Empire's shuttle out from under them. Crosshair distracted them while I snuck on board the shuttle and stunned the pilot."
"...she wanted to rescue the hound, and I didn't. She threw the money at me, and I turned to leave, but," Crosshair sighed. "I couldn't. I was free because of Omega, and I couldn't leave her on her own. She was too reckless and prone to violence. I had to constantly remind her to talk her way out of problems instead of shooting."
"Funny, I don't seem to remember it that way," Omega stated. Much laughter.
"...as we approached, there sat the Marauder ." Omega got teary-eyed, and Hunter rubbed her back.
Wrecker put his arm around Crosshair, "I'm glad we got Crosshair back. I missed messing with him all those months."
"You've made up for lost time," Crosshair commented, half-heartedly shrugging Wrecker's arm off.
"Got that right!"
Omega continued. "You all know the rest. Ultimately, the Tantiss base and its database were destroyed, and we saved a lot of other Clones."
"And we're very grateful for our home here," Hunter added.
Claris leaned forward to look at Omega. "You know, Omega, had you not approached the guys in the corridor, we probably wouldn't have our husbands."
"That's right," Kyra agreed.
A round of head nods.
Omega brightened. "That and the squad going back to get me, so yeah, it all began in a corridor on Kamino. So, Happy Found You Day!"
A chorus of "Happy Found You Day's" arose.
"Let's eat!" The reader can guess who that was.