The trash octopus was that one rare moment of true horror back during the original Star Wars movie, with Luke himself nearly being killed by the thing after he and the rest of the hero party escaped the Empire down a garbage chute.
No one knew what the heck it was, why it was there, or anything else about it, all they saw was a huge eye and tentacles drag Luke under the water. Had it not let him go, the movie could have ended right then and there.
Its body mostly looked like a huge ruddy red octopus that was covered in bits of debris and who knew what else, but it was hard to miss the big eyestalk staring at us from underwater even as it hid behind its large body that connected to several large tentacles that were grabbing onto us like a huge tangle of anacondas. All of which were trying to pull us towards its center mass where I knew its toothed mouth was located.
In hindsight, I should have expected the creature to thrive on junkworlds too, especially as it was doing its level best to kill us at the moment. Thankfully, unlike Wrecker, my suit was sealed so I didn't need to worry about potentially drowning, but that didn't stop it from trying to strangle us to death.
Another good bit of news was the fact we had teammates who were doing their level best to pull us out of the water, which gave Wrecker and I both an opportunity to cut off the tentacles holding us–Wrecker with his vibroknife and me with my hidden knuckle blade. It was this very moment that made me so glad I spent the time to buy and install the thing.
"I'm free!" I yelled as, ironically, the dianoga temporarily pulling us in had untangled Wrecker and thus allowed me to get my arm loose and activate my suit's repulsorlift to fly out of range of its tentacles. Unfortunately, that just meant it could focus all its attention on Wrecker. "Wrecker! Move!"
"Faster! Pull faster!" Wrecker yelled as he desperately climbed the cable and the others tried to pull him up.
Meanwhile, I did the best I could to give him cover.
"Suck plasma!" I yelled as I unholstered my CR-2 from my left side and fired full auto at the thing, sadly only scorching its tentacles since its main body was under the water, but at least making it roar in pain from doing so. "Move it, Wrecker!"
"I'm trying!" Wrecker yelled, before the creature grabbed him by both his legs and pulled, with him barely hanging onto the cable.
"Hang on! I'm comin-ack!" I yelled as I tried to get close to cut him free, only for the dianoga to smack me out of the air with a free tentacle and send me skipping across the water a ways away, prevented from going under only due to my suit's flight system catching me–foul water streaming off the armor of my battle-suit.
I stabilized myself as quickly as I could, but before I could act, another huge tentacle grabbed Wrecker and yanked him off the cable and into the water–violently thrashing until going completely under and the pool of toxic looking water going still.
"Wrecker!" I yelled as I quickly floated over and activated my scanner to look for him.
Dammit! My scanners couldn't differentiate his signature from the larger creature's! Especially not with all this floating grime and chemicals interfering!
"I'm going in!" I yelled to everyone above, floating upwards to gain some room to dive into the murky waste.
I hardened my resolve…
Before I could act, however; Wrecker's hand blasted out of the water and grabbed the dangling cable that we had left hanging just above the waterline–quickly pulling himself upwards as the dianoga's monstrous tentacles rose again to wrap around him and reclaim its escaped prey.
"Pull!" I heard Omega yell as the group worked together to pull up Wrecker, finally forcing the dianoga's body to rise a bit out of the water to show off its disgusting circular maw ringed with gnashing teeth.
It wrapped most of its tentacles around him and was starting to pull him in again, but I was having none of that!
"Eat this!" I roared as I floated above and blasted it full auto in the mouth, joined by some more accurate–but fewer–blaster bolts from above.
The creature's mouth soon found itself covered in scorch marks, making it scream in pain and quickly release Wrecker as it finally realized that this particular prey was too much work to try and eat, retreating under the dirty water and away from the bolts hurting it.
With Wrecker finally free, he climbed his way back up to his teammates while I kept my blaster on the water and slowly followed him up until he was dragged up the rest of the way onto the wrecked ship once more.
"Oh swe-hack," Wrecker coughed as he just hugged the ground before looking upwards at tired Rex from where he was sitting in front of him after dragging him up.
"Makes you miss fighting clankers, doesn't it?" he joked poorly.
"Uggggggggh," Wrecker groaned as put his head back down.
I, meanwhile, wasn't satisfied.
I quickly put down my backpack, rummaged around it a little, and pulled out what I was looking for.
I primed the grenade and threw it down into the water below as hard as I could, making a loud splashing sound, followed a few moments later by a muted high-pitched explosion that tossed up the water a bit as my sonic grenade went off.
"Suck on that you overgrown calamari!" I yelled out, almost certain I could hear a pained roar in the distance, before breathing heavily in pain, angry, my adrenaline going down, and most certainly fear from the whole situation.
I turned back to everyone else, who were currently just staring at me, before Wrecker spoke up.
"Can I throw one of those too?"
"Please do. On the house," I stated.
I was so over this planet already.
After me and Wrecker got all that out of our system, we continued our journey to the medical bay with no other native wildlife getting in our way other than the local scrap rats running away at our approach.
The only signs of life left on a ship that once was home to thousands… not counting the dianoga of course.
Which I was thankful for, since the last thing we needed was to run into another space monster that had decided to turn the old ship into a nest, since goodness knows there were all kinds in this universe. Nature was damned scary in Star Wars, and that is without counting all the Sith warbeasts made over the millennia. Leave all that nonsense up to the Jedi and big game hunters.
Anyway, according to Rex we were nearing the medical bay, which was soon confirmed when the man in question bent over to look through the partially open door.
"This is it," Rex informed us as he stood back up. "Someone give me a hand."
"I'll do it," I stepped forward and bent down to grab the lip of the stuck sliding metal space door. "What's the point of wearing a powersuit if you don't take the chance to use the enhanced strength every once in a while for heavy stuff that needs moving, am I right?"
With only a little effort, I pulled up and then pushed the door upwards until fully open and slid into the door's recess above with an echoey clang. After that, I walked into the medical bay, with the others following close behind and shining their flashlights everywhere, causing a few of the space rats to scatter at our entrance.
"This will do nicely," Rex said as he removed his helmet.
"I would no longer call this medical bay a sterile environment," Tech disagreed after shining his light on a rat that ran into a nearby locker, showing how just like the rest of the ship the medical bay was not what it once was.
"Do you prefer to use the facility on Kamino?" Rex asked sarcastically as he stepped forward.
"This will do nicely."
"I will calibrate the surgical pod," Echo informed everyone as he took off his own helmet and plugged into the machine in question's consoles in front of it while Omega helped Wrecker sit down on the table section and take off his own helmet, with him visibly rubbing his head in pain.
Not long after he did so, he activated the backup power for the medical bay and activated the lights, and especially the pod itself as it started booting up.
"Man, they sure built these to be sturdy, didn't they?" I couldn't help but comment.
"They did," Rex nodded as I looked over the surgical pod itself.
"How hard do you guys think it would be to detach this thing and take it with us?" I asked curiously.
"Very, it's built into the room itself and would take a great deal of time to separate it, to say nothing of a great deal of support equipment it needs to properly function," Tech answered as he took off his helmet, took off his pack, and took out the brain scanning device he built himself to look for the inhibitor chips.
"Shame," I couldn't help but note.
"However, the data we gain here about removing our chips should be useful in allowing other clones to do the same with much less specialized equipment," he pointed out as he stepped up to Wrecker with his device in hand. "Time to get scanned, Wrecker."
"Let's… let's get this over with," Wrecker groaned as Hunter grabbed his helmet, weapon, and backpack to put off to the side of the room as Tech put his device over his head, turning it on with his datapad as he started scanning.
Omega looked up at Wrecker in concern at his obvious discomfort before walking over to Hunter at the side of the room.
"Hunter… just because the surgery worked on Rex, doesn't mean it's safe," Omega noted with concern as she put down her energy bow and Hunter took off his own helmet. "This is… dangerous."
"Its more dangerous to leave their inhibitor chips in," Rex commented as he put his own helmet down nearby.
"We have to do this," Hunter told her. "Its worth the risk."
"And what if something goes wrong?" Omega asked fearfully. "I'll be left here… with no one."
Damn, that was something no kid should ever have to think about, especially with a family they had only had for a short amount of time.
"We're not going anywhere, Omega," Hunter assured with a hand on her shoulder. "You're stuck with us for the long run, got it?"
Omega gave a small smile and nod at Hunter's words, and made Rex smile too at the interaction between the two.
"Heh, you really do make a great dad, Hunter," I couldn't help but comment from nearby. "I wonder if it runs in the genes."
"I'm not-" Hunter started to speak up, only for Tech's datapad to start beeping.
"I think I found something," Tech commented as everyone came closer. "90 degrees from his right orbital floor, below the parietal and temporal intersection."
"Get… that away from me!" Wrecker groaned out as he took off the brain scanner and pushed it into Tech's arms.
"Something is not right," Omega noted as she tried to comfort Wrecker, who was audibly making pained noises at this point.
She was right. I put my hand on my pistol and maneuvered myself so I was to Wrecker's back, ready for what was most likely about to happen.
"We need to speed this up," Rex commented as Echo fully activated the machine, making it hum and hiss to life. "You boys got lucky. Very few clones were immune to the effects of Order 66. It's… rare."
"When the Regs attacked the Jedi on Kaller, we didn't understand why," Hunter explained to Rex as both of them stepped off to the side, Omega following along as Tech worked on Wrecker. "We couldn't save the General, but at least we helped the padawan escape…"
"Relax, this won't hurt a bit," Tech told Wrecker as he attempted to apply a hypospray to his head, only for Wrecker to grab his wrist and hold it in place, much to the former's confusion.
Then Wrecker grabbed him by the throat with his other hand, causing Tech to gasp out in shock as he stared up at him. "Wrecker!"
Yeah, I had seen enough.
"You are in dir-agh!" was as far as Wrecker got before I tagged him in the back with a max level stun blast from my pistol.
I was taking no chances with the physically strongest and toughest member of the team, and I didn't want any of them, especially Wrecker, to deal with him rampaging on them against his will. Based on Rex's own words, that kind of experience was so horrible he could barely describe it, watching as your body and mind was forced to act a certain way without being able to stop it, and being aware of it the whole time. I wanted to spare the team not only the violence, but Wrecker the experience as much as possible.
Of course, as Wrecker flopped backwards onto the table and released a gasping Tech, my actions quickly got many guns pointed my way. To which, I simply dropped my pistol and put my hands up, doing the best I could to not make any sudden moments.
"Nick! What the hell did you just do?!" Hunter yelled at me as he, Rex, and Echo pointed their pistols at me while Omega rushed to Wrecker's side.
"I just stunned him," I answered calmly as I kept my hands up. "I didn't like how he was acting and wanted to be on the safe side just in case his chip suddenly activated at the worst possible time. And I'm glad I did."
"He's… he's right," Tech gasped as he stood up fully and steadied his breathing. "I was about to apply the anesthetic to Wrecker when he violently stopped me, even for him. His eyes when he looked at me… they were not his."
"Wrecker…" Omega said in a concerned tone as she held the large clone close.
"In hindsight, we should have prepared for this worst case scenario earlier, but we believed we'd be safe and got complacent," Tech admitted. "Nick quite possibly saved not only our lives, but Wrecker's as well."
That caused the clones to look between each other before slowly holstering their weapons, with Hunter walking directly up to me, bending down to pick up my pistol and handing it back to me.
"Thank you," Hunter eventually said. "We should have planned for the possibility of the chip to activate before we could remove it, but we didn't and you felt the need to pick up our slack. That wasn't your job, but you did it anyway and helped protect all of us."
"You're welcome," I answered back sincerely before turning to Rex. "When Wrecker attacked Tech I knew he wasn't acting like himself at all… is that what it is like when the chip activates?" I asked him as I looked over at Wrecker's prone form in quiet horror–the friendly childlike man turning to a monster willing to try and kill his own teammate and brother in a heartbeat.
Rex was quiet for a moment, a pained expression on his face, before he finally answered.
"Yes… it takes away everything you were and focuses only on completing your orders, no matter who gets hurt and who you care about," he admitted almost shamefully. "I watched a lot of my brothers die because they could think about nothing but being 'good soldiers.'"
Silence followed those words, no one was sure how to respond to it, so we all collectively decided to focus back on the mission rather than dwell on the existential dread of the whole thing.
"Regardless, the matter is handled now. We need to remove the chip before Wrecker wakes up," Tech pointed out as he and Omega worked to get the large clone fully onto the table. "Being stunned is not pleasant, but it at least knocks him out for the operation. He's ready, Echo."
"Putting him in now," Echo reported as Wrecker slid into the machine like he was getting a CT scan or something, which in a way he kind of was, just with extra steps. "Your turn now, Tech."
"On it," Tech said as Echo left the console and let Tech take it over.
"Are you sure you can do this?" Echo asked curiously.
"It's merely a bit of brain surgery," Tech informed him. "Child's play."
"Right, I forgot who I was talking to."
I felt something tap on my leg, and I looked down to see Omega staring up at me with sad eyes.
"Thank you for… for making sure Wrecker didn't stop being himself," she said earnestly to me.
I patted her on the head. "Hey, I like Wrecker just how he is. I wasn't gonna let no stupid chip change that."
"Right…" Omega nodded with a small smile.
After that, we waited a bit, no one speaking and there was no sound beyond Tech clicking and beeping away at his buttons as the machine went to work cutting open Wrecker's head and taking out what didn't belong. Eventually though, someone had to break the silence.
"Is it supposed to take this long?" Echo asked Rex.
"I'm… not sure," Rex admitted. "I've… never been on this end of it."
"My personal opinion is that medical procedures take as long as they need to in order to get the job done and make sure the patient makes it through it, especially when the brain is involved," I commented. "Still, I hope that it's easier on the rest of you."
"You and I both," Echo noted.
"The procedure's complete," Tech suddenly announced, pressing a button and causing Wrecker's table to slide out.
"Wrecker," Omega said as she tried to shake him away, to no effect. She shook him harder. "Wrecker! He should be awake by now!"
"He is alive," Tech assured her as he went over the console's readout. "But his vitals have not stabilized. We won't know more until he regains consciousness."
Rex took Hunter aside at those words.
"This could be a while," Rex admitted. "Why don't you take Omega topside and, eh, get some air."
"No!" Omega responded, getting both of their attention. "I'm staying until he wakes up," she said with finality as she dragged over a chair and sat by Wrecker's side with a hand on his arm.
"Well, I guess that is your answer," I told Hunter.
"I guess it is," Hunter admitted.
"As for me, I'm not great sitting around not doing anything productive," I admitted. "I'm gonna go check out the armory and artillery bay, see what we have to work with and what's worth potentially taking with us to use or sell. Can you call me once Wrecker is awake?"
"We're not sure if he is gonna wake up," Hunter pointed out quietly.
"It's Wrecker, of course he will," I patted him on the shoulder. "After all, he's made it clear to me many times that he is only allowed to die if in the middle of a huge explosive that is at least taking down a capital ship and a couple of its escorts."
"Heh, yeah, he has mentioned that before…" Hunter smirked before looking serious again. "We'll let you know if there is any change. Contact us if you run into anything dangerous too, alright?"
"Got it," I nodded before heading off, passing by Rex in the doorway as I made my way towards the back of the ship.
I wasn't wrong about not doing well just sitting on my thumbs, that and waiting for someone in a medical situation never sat right with me. Sure, I knew Wrecker would most likely be okay, but just sitting around wasn't gonna speed it along, especially when I could be doing something that helps more people in the long run.
It took a bit of walking, especially around the parts of the ship I couldn't get through for one reason or another, like a collapsed hallway or too much debris, but it wasn't too long before I reached my destination.
It took some powersuit empowered muscle to force the door open again, this one sliding to the side, but it did so and as I stared inside the large room I was not disappointed by what I found.
Dozens and dozens of large crates stacked on large metal shelves and kept in place with cargo netting, all likely full of guns, ammo, explosives, and all the equipment an invading force would need when this Venator fought in the war. There was likely enough here to outfit a small army, if not more. Certainly more than I or the Bad Batch could carry on our ships alone… which simply meant we had to be selective about what we would take, which for me meant the rarest and most expensive stuff I could find.
Naturally, this meant I went to the far side of the room and the gate and fence separating me from my prize.
"Figures," I said as I pressed the button next to the door and nothing happened. Without power, of course it wouldn't. "Thankfully, I have a skeleton key for this."
I took off and reached into my backup before taking out a cylindrical item not unlike my stun stick, but as I turned it on rather than electricity it was plasma that danced around the end of it.
"It's not a lightsaber, but it's the next best thing," I smiled as I brought the plasma torch up to the gate lock and got to cutting, the tool making short work of the thin durasteel and allowing me to pull the gate open. "Oh man, that is a beautiful sight."
Before me stood a tall and wide rack of proton torpedoes, all patiently waiting to be fired at something and explode in fiery nuclear explosions. Half were empty, but that still left a bunch left over to collect.
Proton torpedoes weren't overly expensive, compared to some blaster models, but they were very restricted hardware that needed specialized equipment to make and that only militaries were allowed to have, which meant that the resale price would be huge. That was to say nothing about what one could do with them on their own, since these things let smaller craft punch above their weight-class–even becoming threats to capital ships if aimed right and enough were used. Honestly, it made me want to bite the bullet and install launchers into the Sleipnir so she was packing more than just quad-lasers.
You know, I was really starting to get Wrecker's whole deal with explosives… in fact…
"I think someone will like a present when they wake up," I noted as I pulled out a torpedo and held it in my arms thanks to my suit's strength. "Hmm, and maybe add a little something extra too…"
I walked out of the torpedo storage area and looked over the armor, realizing that if I wanted to get the most bang for my buck, ideally before Crosshair and the Empire arrived, I would need more help than just the Bad Batch to move all of this stuff in a timely fashion.
Thankfully, there was no reason why I couldn't get some up help to do all the heavy lifting, and if all these weapons were here that likely meant they were already on the ship too!
It took a little looking, but I eventually found what I was looking for in the form of several deactivated lifter droids sitting in the corner of the armory area. Using my newly acquired, if still little used, knowledge on droid engineering and slicing, I was able to quickly get them activated again and under my control. Not an amazing feat given how dumb the droids were in general, but I was proud of it!
My first real hack!
"Alright, I'm gonna mark the crates I most want and I want you all to transport them to the hangar area so I can transport them more easily there," I explained as I put the torpedo under one arm. "Let's get to work."
The simple droids sent confirmations and already started making their way to a few crates I had already digitally marked for retrieval. I would have to watch over them to make sure they got the work done right since they weren't the smartest droids around, but should do alright with proper supervision.
Of course, while I was doing all that, I still needed to prepare Wrecker's gift.
Several hours passed of me and the droids going through and transporting what I liked from the armory and artillery bay, transporting it to the hangar area so I could put them all on hoversled to quickly move back to the ships later. And yet, there was still a lot to do before I could really fill up my ship to max capacity.
As it was, I was beginning to get tired and was seriously considering taking a stimulant since I could sleep once they were all safely off the planet, but my communicator went off before I could decide.
"Nick, Wrecker's up," Hunter informed me, making me drop what I was doing, radioing the droids to just keep doing what they were assigned, grabbing Wrecker's present and rushing for the medical bay.
I made it up there in short order, thanks to applying a little bit of flight to speed up, and walked in on Wrecker sitting up on the table with a smile on his face, a bandage on the right side of his head, and in good spirits surrounded by his teammates.
"Wrecker! Glad to see you are up and about. I knew no chip would keep you down, and in fact got a gift for you as a reward for being a good patient," I said happily as I brought up the proton torpedo, much to look of shocked joy and a little bit of concern from everyone else. "Straight from the artillery bay, and just for you."
"For me?" Wrecker asked in a slightly broken up voice as he seemed to tear up as I walked over and handed it to him, turning it to let him see the stylized mean face I painted on the front along with the words written on the side, 'From Wrecker, enjoy blowing up!' "I… I… I don't know what to say…" Wrecker stated, honestly starting to cry a little as he cradled the torpedo.
"Just promise me that you never give me a reason to stun you again, okay big guy?" I patted him on the back. "And there are more where that came from too."
"Really?!" Wrecker nearly seemed to squeal in pure joy.
"Oh great, you just know he is gonna start sleeping with that thing," Echo commented with a smile.
"There is a near certain probability, yes," Tech stated. "And right above my bunk, too."
"Alright, alright, enough of that," Rex interrupted the moment and raised Tech's brain scanner in head. "One chip down, three to go. Who's next?"
The next three surgeries went by quickly, and the recovery period was much faster. Tech theorized Wrecker took so long to wake up because his chip was active when it was removed, but either way that meant the Bad Batch were all now chip free. A victory in of itself for free will.
"Nick?" Wrecker came up to me, torpedo in hand, with a pensive look on his face. "Thanks again for, you know, stopping me before I could do anything bad. I… I tried to control it-"
"Wrecker, stop, it's alright," I assured him.
"Still, thank you for saving Tech and everyone from… myself."
"Anytime bud," I patted him on the shoulder.
"Nick's right," Omega said as she came forward. "We're a team, we look after each other."
"You guys…" Wrecker sniffed.
Omega reached into her utility belt and pulled out a handful of Mantel Mix, much to Wrecker's shock.
"The mission's over," Omega pointed out with a smile. "We can't break tradition."
"Thanks kid," Wrecker smiled and the two of them proceeded to eat the Mix out of their hands.
I noticed that Hunter and Rex weren't present, so after excusing myself I followed after them, finding them hanging outside of an airlock near the front of the ship chatting with each other in the Bracca night air.
"Tell the boys I'll see them around," Rex told Hunter as the two clasped forearms.
"Stay out of trouble," Hunter returned.
"Funny, I was gonna say the same thing to you, Vode," Rex smirked before he put on his helmet and noticed me coming up from behind Hunter. "And I hope you do the same, Nick."
"I can only promise to try, especially if I keep hanging out with these guys, and I hope that I'm on my way to earning your trust," I said as I walked up.
"You're getting there," Rex nodded before he started walking down the side of the ship and into the thick fog that had formed behind us. "Well, take care, you two."
"Captain!" Hunter called out, making the clone turn and look up at him before he could go too far. "If you are ever in a bind, you know how to reach us."
"And I am always looking for new customers who are actively sticking it to the Empire! I even get discounts for that specifically!" I added. "Just call me up if you need anything special."
Rex simply nodded to the both of us before he resumed climbing down and vanished into the fog.
"You're not one to ever pass on a chance of advertising yourself, are you?" Hunter looked at me with a smirk.
"It's all about networking in this business, Hunter," I replied back. "You miss every shot you aren't willing to take and all that."
"Fair enough," he shrugged before gesturing back inside. "Give me a review of what you've found so far, we gotta figure out how to transport and divide it out."
As Hunter walked back into the ship, I stayed behind a moment to look outwards with my scanners and see if I could notice anyone hanging around nearby.
Hmmm, no Scrappers I could pick up… but I couldn't rely on that alone.
I pulled out a few observation droids from my pack and threw them into the air, watching them fly off on preprogrammed patrol routes. They were ordered to stay out of sight of and alert me of any Scrapper patrols or anything else interesting they possibly came across.
With hope, this and getting started on salvaging early meant they could get away before the Empire arrived… but if I've learned anything about this universe, is that the Force just loved throwing challenges your way.
Well, if that was the case, I was gonna fight damned hard every step of the way until it learned to knock it off.