aftermath: life debt | the bad batch

xviii. between life and death

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xviii.

between life and death

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•••

*6 hours later* 

They all walked back into the bridge, and Rex brought up a map of Brca in the middle of the table, so they could start forming their plan.

"Planning," Wrecker started. "My least favorite thing to do. Can't we just blow something up already?"

"You have to plan in order to blow something up."

"What does the empire know, and what do they not know?" Gregor asked.

"Easy," Echo responded. "They know we're on Bracca, but that's all. We can't leave, there's no chance we can leave. They probably have the scrappers watching out for us. And if the scrappers see us, they will probably track us. So, long story short, leaving is not an option. Now, the real question is, what does the empire not know? That's what we'll use to create our plan."

"Crosshair will automatically assume that we're stupid enough to be at the same coordinates that we were at last time. They don't know we're here, thanks to Fennec. So what we'll do is walk there. Does that sound good?"

"How much time will we have?" Echo asked.

"It'll take the empire at least two full days to fully prepare a garrison. Assuming they started preparing when Fennec reported back, we still have time. Not much, like I said it's a day and a half, but we still have time," Rex said, sounding discouraged. "It's possible, but it'll be difficult to do."

"Yeah, that sounds great and all," Hunter said. "But what about Omega?"

"That's true," Tech said. "She can't make it that far. She's too ill."

"Well then what do you suppose we do?" Hunter asked, raising his voice a little. "We can't just leave her here!"

"Hunter, calm down," Rex said. "We'll figure something out."

"Why doesn't Tech stay here? To look after Omega?" Wrecker suggested. "Isn't that the best idea?"

Tech sighed. "Wrecker does have a point. That might be the only way to continue planning this."

"As we walk over there, we'll need to do purely stealth for the first part. After the halfway point, we can drop the stealth part. The scrappers will see us then, and report to the empire that we're going that way."

"Here's our next problem. What are we going to do with the ship?"

"One of us will have to fly it out there," Gregor said.

"It'll have to look like it's Tech," Hunter said. "Since he's not with us, we can pretend he's flying the ship."

"But that'll mean one of us is going to have to fly it. Not Tech. So who can that be? It'll be too suspicious if it's either me, you, or Wrecker, since we won't be seen by the scrappers. So who?"

"I'm trying to figure that out."

"I can fly," Rex said. "The empire thinks I'm dead anyway. They won't know. Plus, I don't want to walk for a day and a half anyway."

"Are you sure?" Hunter asked. "It's dangerous. You'll have to be our getaway driver as well."

"I can do it," Rex assured. "I understand the stakes, Hunter."