aftermath: life debt | the bad batch

xxxix. prison break

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xxxix.

prison break

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"Rex, we have a sort of uh, situation here," Rex heard Hunter say over the comm link. His transmission was broken, which wasn't a good sign.

Rex grabbed his comm link "What is it?"

There wasn't an answer. Rex sighed and glanced over at Omega, then proceeded to try and contact the rest of their team again.

"Please don't tell me you guys got caught," Rex said.

There wasn't an answer.

"Hunter?" Rex continued. "Do you copy?"

"We're in a cell right now. Does that answer your question?"

  •••

Trapped within the confines of the Daro prison, the Bad Batch found themselves facing an uphill battle for freedom. Their escape would need a different strategy, one based on cunning resourcefulness, since they lacked Tech's smarts and Wrecker's strength. They couldn't rely on Rex and Omega, because they needed them to guard the ship.

"We'll be right there," Rex said through the comm. "Stay where you are." 

"We're breaking out ourselves," Hunter replied. "Guard the ship." 

He put his comm link that he managed to sneak into the cell back into his pocket, and looked at Echo, then Gregor. 

"What did I say about not messing up?" Hunter said, rolling his eyes. 

"Ah, shut up. You know we're going to get out of here anyway," Gregor replied. 

"How?" Hunter asked. "How, Gregor? You're plan fucked us up already once. I'm not trusting you again." 

"Then you figure it out," Gregor said, sitting at the corner of the cell, picking at something on the floor. 

"Why don't we use similar tactics we did last time we were here?" Echo asked Hunter. "The ones Tech used." 

To Hunter, even just hearing Tech's name was like a stab in the heart where the knife was pulled out immediately. The blood kept pouring and pouring, the grief seemingly never ending. If the knife had stayed inside there would be something to fill the void. Not the same as before, but something. This way, there was nothing. He was losing himself. 

He could feel the time passing, from Tech's death but especially from Wrecker's death. A visceral ache, missing a part of himself he didn't know he could miss until they were gone. A loss of a brother. Not just any brother, but the loss of two members of their squad. Though what their breed may suggest to the empire, clones were never replaceable. 

"I can order a Code-16, redirecting the imperial troop forces to where we won't be," Echo continued. "It's our best shot. I'll just need to find a network terminal."

"We don't even know if Howzer is still here, or even still alive. The empire is trying to eliminate the clones as we speak," Hunter said. "When we leave this cell, we're going into this mission blind and have no reinforcements. This is practically a suicide mission."

"Everything we've done up until now has been a suicide mission," Gregor said. 

"Hunter, I'm going to remind you of what I told you the last time we were in here, rescuing Gregor," Echo said. "We had no reinforcements then either, and we went in blind. So this is a similar situation. If you hadn't taken the risk to rescue me off of Skako Minor without any reinforcements and going in blind, I wouldn't be standing here today. I would most likely be dead, or left abandoned, but nonetheless dead. If there's a chance that one of our brothers is being held here against his will, we have to try and get him out."