Cejanr (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

43

Rex's pulse pounded with familiar mind-numbing adrenaline as he stood with his back to the door of the cybercenter, Tech trying to crack into the door. Rex fired off shots at the droids ahead of them, forcing himself not to be pressed back.

"Careful!" Tech hissed, oblivious to the bolt that narrowly missed his head. "This is a delicate operation." Wrecker grumbled, then spun around and lammed his boot firmly into the door, cracking it open like an overripe melon.

"Boom! You take too long." He whooped. They made their way inside, Hunter in the lead and Wrecker in the rear. Hunter took note of the kid's two knives and laughed, hefting his own blades.

"I like your style, Kid." He called over the blasterfire. Cavalry slipped up close to a droid and slammed the tip of her blade into the joint of it's neck, popping it's head off and piercing it's CPU. 

"Not a kid." She grunted, switching to her modified blaster to squeeze off a few rounds as they got to the control center. Tech went in first, plugging into the central computer and immediately going through the massive amounts of data. Hunter nodded at Rex.

"Better get in there, Cap. Make it snappy."

Rex nodded and ducked in, coming up next to Tech. He gave Tech a datacard from his utility belt. 

"The algorithm follows these sequences. See if you can isolate it." Rex ordered. Tech nodded and got to work, his fingers flying over the keypad for a few tense seconds until the display lit up in front of them with the algorithmic visual patterns flashing by. Tech frowned. 

"That's strange, it's not an algorithm. At least, not a program run by this cybercenter." He said, flicking down the transparent visor and typing again as letters and numbers flashed past his eyes. 

"What is it then?" Rex demanded. There was a muffled yelp from the corridor and his stomach filled with lead. 

"I..." Tech's scowl deepened and he typed impossibly faster. "It's a live signal." He said at last. "Heavily encrypted, but I just broke through most of it."

"Break through the rest, and hurry. We need to know where it's coming from and who's on the other end." Rex barked. 

"Break through the rest or hurry? Pick one." Tech grumbled. Rex walked back to the door of the central computer room and fired off a volley of shots to give the other clones some reprieve. There was a small black mark on the armor of Cavalry's arm. "Got it."

 Rex hurried back, seeing more patterns dancing across the displays. "Where's it coming from. Who's on the other end?"

"Skako Minor. As for who's on the other end... I'll patch you in on audio. It makes no sense, but there's no more encryption." Tech rattled off. He hit a button and sound marking waves spiked and flowed in a circle around the table as it hummed and warbled. 

"That doesn't sound like a droid." Tech mused. Res shook his head. 

"Human or near human vocal tones. Don't think a droid could replicate those no matter how well they are programmed." He said quietly. "Ask for a name." More typing, and the sound marking waves changed again.

"ARC/CT 26-1409... ARC/CT 26-1409... ARC/CT 26-1409... ARC/CT 26-1409......"

Rex's eyes widened and he took a step back, his mind reeling a thousand klicks a nanosecond. 

"Cap. We need to go." Crosshair called. Rex flinched and snapped back to the here and now. He nodded numbly.

"Unplug, Tech. We have everything we need." Rex ordered. Then, louder as he moved to stand and fire off a couple more rounds from the doorway, "Hunter, get out of here and rendezvous in the forest. Call in Evac."

"Yes sir."

As soon as Tech was out of the system, they were gone. Gone and just missing the droid reinforcements that would have spelled the end for the small group of clones. Rex and Tech met with the others in the woods a ways off and kept moving to where Evac had radioed in. Sitting in the transport, Tech glanced at the still quiet captain. 

"Captain, what did that number mean?" Rex blew out a long breath. 

"ARC trooper 26 - 1409. That was the number of a clone I served for a long time. He and his batchmate were part of the 501st, later becoming independent ARC troopers after proving themselves at the Battle of Kamino. Echo, 26-4109, and his batchmate were both sent to rejoin us for the rescue of Jedi master Piell at the Citadel. Echo was hit by a mortar while on mission. All we ever saw after that was his scorched helmet. But..." Rex tipped his head back and sighed. "I don't think he died at the Citadel. I don't think he died at all."

Tech was silent for a moment. "I see." He muttered softly after a second, getting lost in his head. Rex pressed his lips together and glanced at the smaller trooper on his other side. 

"How's the arm,Cav?" He asked. Cavalry brushed the burn without so much as a wince. 

"It was a glancing shot, hit my armor. I think it just scared me more than anything." She pressed her lips together. 

"Good thing you're small. Tiny targets don't get hit." Rex tried for a joke, but he ended up just sounding tired. Which, really, he was. Tired and wanting to check on his ori'vod. Wanting to call his wife. Cavalry chuckled wryly. 

"Yeah, not true. We've both seen what a good sharpshooter can do to even microscopic targets." She pointed out. 

"Although, the captain is right. The chances of hitting a target decrease by 3.40896% chance with every two inches smaller the target gets." Tech rattled off. 

"Thank you, Tech." Rex said smugly. Cavalry muttered something rude in mando'a under her breath. Rex choked at her language. 

"And who taught you that one?" He asked. She gave him a bitter grin. 

"Who do you think?" She quipped back, staring off into the distance. Rex huffed. 

"I'm gonna resurrect Fives just to kill him for teaching you curses for the heck of it." Cavalry rolled her eyes. 

"If it helps his case any, I've learned more about those from Kix than from Fives." She sighed. 

"Not really."

"Ah, worth a shot." 

A/N - Been a while since I've done one of these. Sorry for the slow update, got swamped with schoolwork and ran out of stocked up chapters. Quick note for a timeline check, it's been a year and a half since Trandosha. That means our girl Cavalry is now fifteen years old. One more thing, if you caught the changes in Echo's number, there is an explanation for that. Echo's number has changed several times until the bad batch arc came out for season seven. His first designation is the one I used, CT 26-1409. The one on his armor for the episode 'Clone Cadets' is CT-21-0408. The number used in the bad batch is just CT 1409. I chose to use his first designation, so that's why it's a little different.