Rex, one of my honest to goodness heroes, was standing right before me… with a rather sharp look in his eyes, I noticed. That was fair, I suppose, I was the odd one out in this merry gathering of clones, after all.
For the sake of the Clone Underground, and my own account, I best make a good first impression.
"Considering this appears to be an all clone gathering, should I give you guys some privacy?" I honestly asked.
Sometimes the best way to make a good impression was to step away from what clearly wasn't any of your business, after all… though I did hope that me offering it freely made them think otherwise.
Rex's eyes scanned me over intently, as if looking for the slightest tell about whether I was a threat or not to him or the others. I felt like if I made a single wrong move he would not hesitate to put a blaster bolt before my eyes faster than I could blink, if not faster. Goodness knows that Rex is easily one of the best gunslingers among all the clones with the way he uses those twin DC-17 pistols of his.
"Can he be trusted?" Rex asked Hunter without turning to him.
"He hasn't given us any reason to doubt him… yet," Hunter admitted. "Always comes through whenever we ask him for anything, and he hasn't ratted us out. He's okay for a smuggler, all things considered."
"Oh, you can trust him alright!" Wrecker spoke up in my defense. "He sells us bombs and rocket launchers!"
"So, you are saying that you'd trust anyone who would do that for you?" Echo asked with a raised brow.
"What, you wouldn't?" Wrecker asked in honest confusion.
"Hmmm, I suppose that is something I can work with," Rex eventually nodded before focusing back on me, his eyes seeming to convey that I ever betrayed the small amount of trust given to me by his clone brothers that he'd have no problem putting me in the ground in order to protect them.
I could respect that, and just had to work towards gaining his direct trust through my actions over my words.
All I could do is simply nod to make it clear I got the message he was sending me.
Rex grunted at that before taking a knee so that he could face Omega directly.
"I've met many clones in my time, but never one like you," Rex admitted.
At those words Omega stepped closer and studied Rex's face with narrowed eyes, making the older clone lean back a little with an uncomfortable look on his face at the close attention.
"You're a Generation 1," Omega eventually said.
"Now, how'd you know that?" Rex asked in an impressed tone.
"From the lines on your face," was her matter-of-fact response, earning a snort from me.
"Haha, yeah, I guess I've been around," Rex admitted as he turned back towards the Bad Batch.
"You got that right!" Wrecker commented before groaning and holding his head. "Owwww… Tech, I need one of those med patches."
"You used the last one," Tech pointed out. "You have been going through them nearly faster than Nick can supply them."
Which was a worrying sign if there ever was one, especially since I know what it meant. Sadly, any attempt I tried to address it without revealing knowledge I shouldn't know was waved off for the most part, especially by Wrecker himself.
In a galaxy that is currently ruled by evil space wizards who knew literal magic to rip the knowledge straight out of people's heads, I didn't want to do or say anything I couldn't reasonably justify or else people might start looking too deeply into me. I wanted to be as under the radar and as ignorable as possible, or risk any of my metaknowledge getting into the wrong hands and making things even worse for the galaxy. If I ever told anyone the depth of my knowledge about the potential future it would have to be someone extremely secure and trustworthy, such as Yoda or Obi-wan, but both of them are currently in self-exile and would most likely not approve of visitors.
Anyway, in Wrecker's own words, 'I hit my head all the time, most of the time on purpose'. Therefore, he didn't see anything wrong with his condition in general.
"What's wrong?" Rex asked in a more serious tone of voice as he stood up.
"Nothing," Wrecker waved him off as he took an offered drink of water. "Its just a headache."
"Which are becoming more frequent," Echo pointed out.
"I've tried to convince him to have it checked out… but their options are limited, and Wrecker doesn't like doctors in general," I pointed out.
Granted, I knew the Bad Batch didn't have access to the comprehensive medical support they once did, and they didn't want to go to any hospitals or anything in order to stay off the Empire's radar, but still! I had even offered to have Doc look Wrecker over, but he just wanted to tough it out and none of his teammates were able to convince him otherwise. It was a little maddening, to be honest, since it could be a serious medical issue for all they knew.
Which it was!
As a general rule of thumb, any headache that doesn't go away is a bad thing, after all. But I understood the clone's reluctance to medical care given their recent experiences, and no doubt the less than pleasant picture their creators gave the whole practice as they grew up as purposely genetically deviant vat-born children.
"Is that so…" Rex continued, earning a worried glance from Omega.
"If you are worried about the so-called inhibitor chips, don't be," Tech spoke up. "Our deviant nature appears to have impeded their functionality… except in Crosshair."
"You're telling me you haven't removed your chips?" Rex asked with an edge to his voice.
"No, not yet."
That made Rex narrow his eyes and pull back his cloak, his hand hovering over his sidearm.
This action made Hunter get up from his chair and move in front of his teammates, while Omega and I still stood behind Rex.
"Rex…" Hunter said with slightly raised hands.
"Those chips make you a threat to everyone around you, even them," Rex said while gesturing to Omega and I. "You're all ticking time bombs."
"Take it easy, Captain…"
"What's in your head is more dangerous than you can imagine," Rex explained. "I've seen what happens when the chip activates, and I don't want to bury any more of our brothers. Trust me, it is not something you can control. I couldn't," Rex stated with a grim look on his face. "It's a risk you do not want to take."
The whole Bad Batch squad was silent at those words, various looks crossing their faces, before Hunter spoke up again.
"Well how do you suggest we get them out?"
Rex finally removed his hand from his holster and considered how to answer.
"Good… question."
I choose that moment to speak up with a raised hand.
"So… mind giving me some context about why a question about Wrecker's headaches apparently turned the mood super serious?" I asked, seeing an easy way to explain away my metaknowledge later. "What was all that about chips in your head?"
"Ah, yes, you and the wider galaxy would not be aware," Tech said as he adjusted his eyewear. "You see, the clones of the Grand Army of the Republic were created with behavioral modification bio-chipsimplanted in their brains during gestation by the kaminoans in order to–officially–make them less independent thinking, less aggressive, and more likely to follow orders as a whole. However, recently we've discovered they were also programmed to–when activated–kill the Jedi, marking them all as traitors, and follow orders without question, regardless of what they are."
"One of our teammate's chips was more effective on him than the rest of us," Hunter explained. "His name is Crosshair, and before we escaped they did something to him to make it stronger. Now he works with the Empire without question…"
Wow, even intellectually knowing all of that beforehand didn't really prepare me for just how emotional of an effect it was having on me, especially from people who dealt with the effects directly and just what it all meant for all the other clones across the galaxy. That was to say nothing of the near extinction of the Jedi Order because of it, and now how the clone army being forced to crack down on a galaxy they were originally made to protect the freedoms of.
I felt my fist clenching a great deal in anger at those responsible, especially since I knew they would do even worse in the future.
All in all, there was only one way to respond.
"Man that is fucked up in so many ways, I'm so sorry you dealt with all that…" was the first thing out of my mouth. "And no one knew about this beforehand? Like, if there are chips in every clone's head, wouldn't it have come out somehow?"
"Most medical duties on clone troopers were performed by droids, other clones, or the kaminoans directly," Omega pointed out. "The bio-chips are very hard to notice, since they are entirely organic and appear like a normal part of the brain, so don't come up on scans most of the time unless you know what you are looking for. And if anyone else did notice it, they were most likely told it was nothing to worry about and not bring it up again. It's not a surprise no one knew about it."
"Some did…" Rex couldn't help but sadly note.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense… but… why would the chips be specifically programmed to kill off the Jedi?" I asked. "Why target just them? And why just kill them all off? I know the official story is that they tried to assassinate the former Chancellor turned Emperor, so I understand wanting to put down a potential coup… but why not try to capture them and put them on trial then? For goodness sake, there are some Jedi who are barely even teenagers out there! What is the point of killing them all?"
"There isn't, especially when I know for a fact the Jedi would never betray the Republic," Echo pointed out. "I've fought with many of them over the years, and all of them would have given their lives to defend it."
Thank you, Echo, for that perfect opening.
"...Defend the Republic, not the Empire?" I questioned, making many of them stop short and consider that. "And who, exactly, would have the authority to activate the chips? I can't imagine that would be a long list, or that any of the Jedi would be on it given what happened to them."
"...The Chancellor," Rex stated out loud, before muttering more quietly. "Darth Sidious…"
"Who?" I asked, making him turn to me.
"I can't explain it… but the chips told us to refer to him by that name," Rex explained. "But I don't know why."
Because the guy has a massive ego and most likely wanted the destruction of the Jedi associated with his Sith name rather than his original one.
"It would make sense that the former Chancellor would have the ability to activate the chips given the power the Emergency Powers Act gave him, granting him the rank of Commander-in-Chief. He himself gave out the order to 'execute Order 66' over all clone comm channels, but we didn't understand the significance of that at the time," Tech pointed out as he rubbed his chin and his hyper-intelligent mind most likely ran through all the data it currently had, but came up short. "Though I can't explain why the chips would include programming to refer to him by a different name."
I could, but I wasn't gonna overly dwell on that at the moment since I had no evidence to back it up with yet. However, due to Palpy's own ego and with a little bit of research I could share, I could fix that.
"Okay, but this is the same former Chancellor who, not long after the war ended, decided to turn the Republic into the Empire," I pointed out. "I don't know about you, but that seems all a bit too convenient."
"You're saying that the Chancellor planned to use the clone army to betray the Jedi?" Hunter asked in disbelief. "All so he could set up this new Empire? But why?"
"Why do politicians do anything?" I asked rhetorically. "To grow their power and influence. If the war ended, he would have had to give up his power and position, but not if he restructured the government in such a way that he would get to stay in charge for as long as he wanted. Maybe the Jedi knew about that plan and tried to stop it, especially since it looked like the war was nearly over by that point, since they were all about defending the Republic and not this Empire. This would end up leading to their quote, 'assassination attempt', unquote. And now killing them all off is just his way of tying off loose ends and those most likely to resist his rule."
"But that would mean he'd have to be planning this since before the clone army was even created well over a decade ago," Echo pointed out.
Way more than that, if one counted the whole Banite Sith's thousand year old plot, but I had no hard proof to give them about Palpy being a Sith Lord, compared to the much more visible Dooku, Ventress, Opress, and Maul.
"He got voted into office during the Naboo Crisis, right?" I pointed out. "Which, many claim, was the catalyst to the creation of the CIS as a whole, which the Republic ended up fighting using you guys–which the whole galaxy weren't even aware of until the war kicked off. What's to say he couldn't have contributed to the opening of the war, even happening to justify your entire existence and put the Jedi in a position to be destroyed? After all, from the way you guys describe it, they were your friends. And who expects their friends to shoot them in the back without warning?"
That just made them all go silent once more as they digested the implications of all that, except for Rex who had a pensive look on his face, only for Wrecker to interrupt it by reminding them of their current issue.
"Ah, who cares about all that right now?! What are we gonna do with these stupid things in our head?!" he said while poking his own skull. "I don't wanna be told to do anything by anyone!"
"Wrecker's right," Rex spoke up as he looked my way before turning back to the BBs. "Nick's points are important, but it doesn't address the current situation right now. We need a safe way to remove all your inhibitor chips."
"I've got a surgical droid on my ship? Would that work?" I asked curiously, only for Rex to shake his head.
"It would get it out… but they'd most likely not survive the process since another clone who had it removed that way didn't make it," he explained. "We need a serious set up to possibly even think of getting it out safely."
"A set up that is usually only available in major medical centers, which we cannot safely use or risk alerting the Empire as to our position," Tech pointed out.
"How much would one of these things cost?" I asked curiously. "Maybe my guy can get one."
"Not unless you have several hundred thousand credits available to convince your supplier to part with it," Tech pointed out as he brought out his datapad and showed me the going rate for high-end automatic medical suites, which included a lot of zeroes I'd be hard pressed to earn in such a short amount of time. "To say nothing about the black market price since such things only truly exist within the best hospitals or military facilities in the galaxy."
"Military facilities…" Rex muttered to himself as a thought likely came to mind. "That gives me an idea. I'll need to follow up on it, but it might be the answer we need. I'll be in touch."
"Assuming your idea works out, I ask that I get a brainscan from you," Tech asked. "So that I know what an unchipped brain looks like and make it easier to find our own."
"Right, we can do that," Rex said as he and Tech went off to the side to do just that as Hunter and Echo tended to Wrecker, who had another headache coming on.
I felt my sleeve being tugged on and looked down to see Omega looking up at me with a concerned expression.
"Wrecker is going to be okay, right?" She asked in a weak voice.
Oh man, it hurt to see her look so worried and scared.
I gently placed my hand on her head.
"I honestly don't know, kiddo, I'm not a doctor after all," I said honestly. "But I do know you, your squad, and Rex are gonna do your hardest to make sure he is taken care of, so I put it on good odds he'll be more than fine after this is all over. In fact, if you'll have me, I'll do what I can to help out too. After all, I can't have some of my best customers get mind-controlled, now can I?"
"I guess you can't," Omega sniffed, but had a small smile on her face. "So you'll help us?"
"If Hunter and Rex say so, I'd be happy to," I told her before I pushed her Hunter's way. "But for now, just be with your squad and look after Wrecker. He needs you more than anyone else right now."
"Right," Omega nodded with conviction before turning to me one last time. "Thanks, Nick."
I just smiled behind my helmet as Omega rejoined her family before focusing my thoughts for what was about to come next.
After all, assuming Rex's idea is what I thought it was, there was a ship graveyard planet we were gonna visit soon, and possible conflict to run into with both the Empire and arguably the dangerous bounty hunter in the galaxy.
As expected, less than a day after his visit Rex contacted the Bad Batch and told them to meet up with him on Bracca. And as they prepared to set off, I was currently in a deep discussion with Hunter to convince him to let me tag along.
"This is a military operation, Nick, and a personal one," Hunter explained as he loaded up the last of their supplies onto their ship, the Marauder, in the docking bay they were renting. "It's going to be too dangerous for you to come along."
"Look, I get that I'm not nearly as much of a fighter as you guys, or even Omega," I said while gesturing to the girl in question as she walked nearby and waved when she saw me do so. "But from what I understand, there are most clones with chips in their heads who aren't going on this trip. What would happen if more than just Wrecker's chip unexpectedly activates? Him alone is already super dangerous, but more of you? I'm not sure even Rex can handle all that on his own."
"And you are saying you can handle going on a mission with us?" Hunter raised a brow.
"Oh, hell no, but I can at least be a spare stunner on hand to ideally knock any of you out if needed, or even just an extra pair of hands doing whatever I can to help. And besides, I'm a grown adult, I know I am going into a potentially dangerous situation but I still want to help," I pointed out. "Listen, you guys are my business associates, best customers, and I like to think even my friends. So with all those reasons in mind, do you really want to turn away the free help? That is not even mentioning what else I can bring to the table."
"What do you mean?" Hunter asked.
"Bracca is a ship graveyard full of barely a few year old ships that hadn't been properly emptied out yet, so it's full of equipment we can resell for a huge profit," I pointed out. "My ship has way more cargo capacity than yours, so if I come along we can grab a lot of stuff while we are there after Wrecker and the rest of you are chip free. We do that, you won't be hurting for gear or credits for a while and I won't have to work through my own contact for a bit. We can grab a lot of goodies working together, and I promise a fair 50/50 split for everything. What do you say?"
While all of this would be nice, true, the main reason for me saying it was to give Hunter a reason why a money-focused smuggler might want to tag along. After all, rare was the being in this galaxy that did things out of the goodness of their heart, so ironically this would make me seem more trustworthy in his eyes… maybe.
"Hmmm, the credits would be useful…" Hunter muttered to himself before finally nodding. "Alright, you can come and help us out, but as far as I'm concerned that makes you a civilian specialist, which means during this whole mission you follow our orders, we clear? Our priority is removing the chips before anything else."
"Yes sir!" I said with a salute.
"At ease," Hunter stated, which I followed. "We'll link up comms before we leave, and make sure you follow Tech's instructions so that we don't set off any planetary sensors going in, got it?"
"Yeah, got it," I nodded. "I'll head to my ship now and follow you guys. See you at Bracca."
"See ya there," Hunter nodded as he and the rest of his team boarded their ship and prepared to leave.
I quickly jumped onto my jumpspeeder and zoomed back to my own ship to do the same, quickly folding it up and rushing up the entry ramp.
"Launchpad! We're heading out!" I called out to the droid as I rushed into the cockpit. "You receive instructions from the BB?"
"I sure did! It is very detailed," LP informed me as the ship already started to take off and followed after the Marauder into orbit. "I don't know what model of droid set it up, but it's incredibly well-made."
I swallowed a snort at Tech being described that way and got serious.
"Follow those instructions as perfectly as possible, since this is our most important outing yet. Let me know once we reach Bracca," I ordered.
"Got it, Nick," LP nodded as we left orbit and the Bad Batch's ship jumped into hyperspace not far in front of us. "Engaging lightspeed now."
With those words we jumped into hyperspace, and now all that was left to do was wait until we reached our destination. Which meant I had to prepare.
I quickly left the cockpit and made my way to the armory.
After all, if I was about to go into a potential battlefield it only made sense that I suited up properly.