Chapter Text
It was a simple mission. A simple mission by the bad batches standards, that was before it all went to shit in a matter of seconds. Echo had been part of the bad batch for around 3 standard months now, finally getting used to the unspoken orders passed around with only a single look and the chaos that seems to follow the batch around like a lost tooka.
They had landed in a clearing a small distance away from the separatist's base in some backwater planet. The simple mission was to sneak in, retrieve some sort of information and then blow the base to ash. Knowing the batch’s luck, the explosion may come first but they don’t know that yet.
“Tech I need you and Echo to get in and get that info without anyone seeing you. Wrecker you and I will place bombs around each level after and meet up with Tech and Echo at the entrance. Cross your our eyes in the skies, tell us if any droids are near Tech and Echo.” Hunter explained with each member nodding afterward.
“There’s a terminal Echo can scomp into on the 3rd floor, we should be able to get in there reasonably undetected” Tech stated in his usual factual tone. Hunter nodded his head before continuing
“After Tech and Echo are out, Wrecker blows this place to ashes' ' Wrecker's grin doubles in size after that.
“Alright then, Let’s blow this place to ashes”
——
The moment it all went downhill was hard to pinpoint, whether it was an alarm going off the moment Echo disconnected from the server or the lack of intel on how many droids there were or the patrol of droids that just so happened to be in the hallway wrecker turned down.
Echo was gunning it down the hallways shooting at any droids that were within shooting range. He got separated from Tech after 3 patrols of droids were sent in their direction and Echo being Echo decided to be the distraction. Blood pumped furiously in Echos's chest as he turned the corner, metal feet sliding on the ground that he slammed into the wall, staggered into to continue his comms buzzed with someone’s voice.
“Is everyone okay!?” It was strained but the worry etched deep in the voice belonged to their leader Hunter.
“For the most part I am unscathed but I got separated from Echo after some droids found us” Came techs hushed voice
“I’m Alive-'' Echo forced out between ragged breaths “Little busy but-“ A sharp gasp of pain cut Echo off, a stay blaster bolt struck Echo in the shoulder blade, stumbling a bit before continuing his run down the never-ending maze of hallways. He was bound to find someone right?.
“Kriff that hurts” That summoned up this whole mission
“Echo, are you okay? Where are you?!” It was frantic but the blood pumping in Echos's head was too loud for him to try and guess who was talking. Running for his life while trying to haphazardly shoot with one hand is a lot harder than it looks.
“I’m okay for now - just a blaster hit” Breathing was getting harder now, his lungs felt like they were constricting in his chest.
It felt like this mission couldn’t go more wrong.
——
The building shook with the force of the explosion. A stray bolt hit one of Wrecker's bombs he placed at the start of the mission. That wouldn’t be too bad if Echo hadn’t been in the hallway above and only meters in front of where the blast was. Echos' distressed wail cut short over the roar of the blast.
Static echoing on the comms
——
Ringing in his ears is what raised Echos from unconsciousness, the smell of smoke invading his nose was the second thing that caught Echo off guard. It feels like Lola Sayu all over again, the lack of burning flesh that normally pierced his nose is what pulls Echo front that dangerous train of thought and back to the present. In the distance he can hear someone saying something, it sounds frantic and out of breath, but the stinging in his stomach is more distracting. Echo's attention slowly filters around to his surroundings. The destroyed hallway in front of him and the very obvious hole that was created in the explosion, the world swims when he lifts his head slightly causing him to hiss in pain. In a moment it hits him like a brick wall tumbling down, he remembers the mission. Panic. His mind starts running at a million miles per hour, making his vision blur more. It starts at the bottom of his spine and crawls its way up, long black claws pulling Echos mind apart like a child with a new toy. It’s chaotic, electric as it wriggles its ugly head in the brightest part of his mind, Echos chest constricts more with the terror that rips through his whole body, his hand shakes at his side. His mind stuck back in the stasis chamber, the cold and distant voice of Wat Tambor echoes in his mind, overseeing the progress of his newest experiment. Is the screaming over the comms that rip Echo from his spiraling thoughts .
“ECHO? ECHO ARE YOU THERE!?” It’s Hunter, he can tell that much though other people are yelling as well but that's still a bit muddled.
“I’m alive'' It's weak and clearly very panicked but at least he’s breathing.
Echo distantly hears the collective sigh of relief from all teammates, including crosshair which shocks Echo the most. Crosshair is still standing at arm's length with Echo, the others have accepted him as their new brother and part of the team but crosshair still seems on edge around Echo. He can’t tell if it’s because he’s a reg or that he didn’t grow up with Cross like the others, he respects Echo, of course, not everyone can become a fully-fledged Arc trooper, survive an explosion, and be experimented on like a sick science rat.
“Are you hurt? '' It's Tech for sure, the worry still seems to seep into his voice no matter how hard he tries to keep his voice even.
Only then does Echo look down at the rest of his body, his visor is cracked and he can feel the incoming headache that’s brewing from where he slammed his head into the floor after getting literally blown away from the force of the explosion. His eyes are brought down to a very obvious large shard of metal burrowed between his armor, the steady stream of blood that’s starting to pool around his side. Raising a still shaking hand to cover the wound and apply pressure before the bleeding gets worse, he lets out a strangled cry of pain at the contact.
That’s all the team needs to hear before Tech starts rambling on about tracking Echos comm signature, Hunter starts barking orders, and the steady breaths that follow from the others breaking out into sprints.
Echo is not one to sit still and wait for either the droids to pick him off or his team to find him dead on the floor, making sure his blaster is still securely tucked away in its holster before painfully crawling his way over the unburnt side of the wall. With his scomp arm braced on the wall he slowly drags his way up the wall grasping out in pain with the metal moves too much, there’s a searing pain from his back but Echo finds himself putting that in the later basket. The world spins on its axes after standing up with most of his weight being slumped against the wall. The first steps he takes are more like drunk staggering before he gets into a slow rhythm that doesn’t move his wound too much, his good arm still tightly wrapped around his stomach.
“Echo, you shouldn’t be moving!“ It’s Tech's borderline panicked voice that cuts through Echo's muddled head. He wasn’t paying much attention to what anyone else was saying but the pure panic that Tech was struggling to contain cut through the haze with a knife.
“I’m not going to sit there - waiting to be - kriff - picked off” His sentence cut off but a few rasps of air in his ever strained lungs that feel like they couldn’t take in another breath or they would burst.
“Stop moving! You're going to make your injuries worse!” The voices were getting muddled again but Echo is 87% sure that that was Crosshairs voice. But Echo was also 99.9% the Blood loss was getting to his head, looking down the stream of blood looked worse than it did when he first came around. Maybe walking was a bad idea.
Crosshairs body was the first thing he saw charging around the corner full speed, spotting Echo he faults almost slightly before running again towards echo.
“I’ve got Echo. It’s not good” came Crosshair's short announcement over the comms.
“Arm over my shoulder reg, I’m getting you out of here” It was a command but even Crosshair couldn’t completely cut out the worry that seeped into his voice or the way his helmet tipped to look at Echos wounds.
“I’m okay Cross” His reply was slurred but the thing that made Crosshair stiffen ever so slightly (not that Echo noticed) was the use of his nickname. It was never used by Echo before, never did the reg want to overstep a line when he didn’t know where the line was. The use of his nickname from a brother that was injured only made Crosshair hasten his pace and practically dragged Echo down 2 levels.
“Stay with me reg, can’t have you blacking out on me just yet” It was somehow soft even if the waver in his voice betrayed his calm exterior.
“m’ sorry, it hurts” came Echos' anguished whisper.
“Hey stay with me Echo”
“Mmm’ still ‘ere”
Crosshair ended up dragging a half-conscious Echo down another hallway before meeting up with a frazzled Tech that nearly slammed into Echo if it had not been Crosshair that had used his body to shield Echos. If tech noticed the way that Crosshair shielded Echo he certainly did not mention it but ordered panicked directions of their escape plan to Crosshair while running in the hopefully right direction of their ship.
Pain shooting through Echos side was the only thing that was keeping him lucid, not quite in the right mind to know what’s immediately happening around him but aware of the way a hand was wrapped around his wound when his hand slipped off. Aware of the comforting words that found their path into his ears, it was calm and Echo was certain he was dead because there was no way in sith hells that crosshair would be saying such soft comforts to him, a reg no less. It’s the only thing that’s keeping him from taking the dangerous path of remembering the citadel, the fire that licked up his legs and right arm, the cold voice of Wat Tambor, or the ever-present whirl of medical droids that was always near him. Black dots start to blur the edges of Echo's field of vision, then it all fades to black after one final look at Crosshairs helmet that’s facing forward and the back of Tech's head as he protects them from the front.
The rest is a blur, getting out of the base and onto the ship comes in pieces, tiny moments of awareness float around but there’s not enough to put together the full picture.
——
Echo can’t remember the exact moment he came back to awareness of his body, he thinks it is the increasing throbbing that seems to emanate from his stomach and shoulder is the main reason. Opening his eyes seems to be the hardest challenge of them yet, the lights seemed to be as bright as tatooine’s twin suns. blinking his eyes, the edges began to clear. He was in a bunk, that he could tell, the same grey bunk walls that he grew accustomed to staring at when his head gets the best of him and spiraling seems to hold him captive till one of the batches breaks him out.
He’s covered in the standard issued soft black sheets that were handed to the bad batch, pulling the sheet down he sees his entire abdomen wrapped tightly with bandages, same with his shoulder. A small patch of blood seemed to have seeped through the bandages around his stomach and then distant throbbing from his shoulder brings the memories simmering to the surface in seconds. Wiping his head to the side he spots the batch surrounding the bunk, all passed out from what Echo can only assume exhaustion from running 6 missions in a row and the adrenaline crash of having to keep Echo alive. Each member stripped down to their blacks but still had some mud decorating the blacks, looks like they must have passed out without changing or showering.
Tech is folded over a small table that he must have dragged over to Echos bunk, parts scattered over the table with a half-finished something hanging softly in his hands. Wrecker was the hardest to miss considering he has himself with his back to Echo seemingly guarding Echos bunk. Only then does Echo notice that Lula has been placed haphazardly in his good hand, a smile making its way to Echo's face. Hunter has his back pressed up against the bunk opposite of where Echo is currently resting, arms crossed and head laying low with his normally tight headband slipping from its position and covering a bit of his eyes. Crosshair was perched in the bunk opposite Echo, head gently resting on the wall behind him, if Echo hadn’t seen Crosshair sleep before he would have assumed he was dead from the shallow breath Cross took due to his enhancements.
Echo spent a little longer staring at his brothers before trying to sit up. Trying was the keyword. A low groan escaped his mouth when he got about halfway up with his good arm supporting most of his weight on the bed. Hunter immediately woke up with a start before his eyes surveyed the others before dropping on Echo.
“You're awake! How are you feeling” He started making his way over towards Echo, stepping over Wrecker's legs and helping Echo sit up properly.
“Like I just got run over by a speeder seven times” It came out raspy after not using his voice for a while.
“How long was I out for”
“18 standard hours now” Techs voice brought their attention to the now awake tech that was making his way over to Echos bunk. From the corner of his eye, he could see Crosshair and Wrecker waking up.
“You should rest for 3-4 days for the damage to your shoulder and stomach to heal properly”
Another groan rumbled out of Echo, but not out of pain but dread. Echo hates bed rest, even before the citadel, laying down and doing nothing always made him feel angsty and he would snap at most people. A small smile curved Hunter's lips at Echos's reaction sensing that this may be a fun few days with their resident Arc trooper stuck on bed rest.
It wasn’t long before Wrecker dragged all of them down to the floor after placing some mattresses on the floor. Echo was told to sit on the floor while the rest of them fixed up the floor so it was at least somewhat comfortable, not without some grumbled protest from Echo about how he can still help. All protests were stopped after Crosshairs and Techs simultaneous glare that spoke many words.
Echo still told everyone to at least change into some clean blacks before they dirty all their sheets, which all members did without any protest. Echo was placed in the middle with hunter and tech curling around his sides, Crosshair finding his spot between Hunter's legs and curling comfortably towards echo. Wrecker is positioned behind the arching as a large cuddly pillow.
Echo who was just absorbing the feeling of being home again, having his brothers protecting him. He would risk his life for every member of this team if it meant they would live. He did it once and he would do it again.
Echos now vaguely listens to the conversation that has seemed to calmly float around the now quieting space. Echos head rolls slightly to lean on Hunter's shoulder, his body feeling the exhaustion that comes from running for your life for 10 minutes straight and getting impaled and shot. Body sinking more heavily into the mattress, injured shoulder pressing uncomfortably into Hunter's arm that’s holding his body somewhat up. A small pained whine is earned from a delirious echo despite sleeping for 18 hours straight, his good hand twitching towards his shoulder before Tech and Hunter have shifted him slightly and Echo floated into a deep sleep once again.
A single memory floated by.
The cuddle piles that happened back in his cadet days with the domino squad.
He’s home now
Even if this home is different
It’s his.
——