Bad Batch Fic - Welcome to the Games - CHAPTER UPDATE! Chapter 34 - Droid Heist 2.0
Hi all! This week's chapter will finally give some answers regarding the mysterious droids... and should spark a lot more questions too XD
Rating: Teen
Category: Gen
Genre: Mystery
Summary: Laser Bait is the hit sporting event that’s sweeping the galaxy. 4 vs 4 stun round gun fights set in stadiums that fill hundreds of thousands of spectators. It’s all fun and games until the Batch get recruited for a covert mission on Coruscant where they need to pose as an official Laser Bait team in order to find a smuggling ring hidden in the centre of the sport. The catch? They might have gotten into a bit of trouble with the local team on their last shore leave and might not exactly be welcome there…
Chapter Excerpt (Neva POV)
(Excerpt has been slightly modified to remove spoilers)
“How did they figure out they needed to cut power to bypass your camera system? I thought you said it was undetectable.” Neva asked.
“That would appear to be the flaw. Rather than assuming it had not been tampered with, the fact that it was undetectable only told the smugglers that if I were monitoring them, the only thing they could do to stop me was cut the power. I did not account for the fact that my reputation might be known.” Tech said.
“Well… the republic advertisements for the Victory to the Republic Games did paint you as some sort of genius hacker who could do anything.” Neva said. “Even regular people know you’re smart.”
“Obviously.” Tech answered.
They moved to the other storage hatch. When no droids were found there either, they checked the storage rooms in the convention wing, next to the unused catering kitchen. Then Tech suggested they try maintenance, in case Waign knew anything. They had to be careful though. Waign was still a prime suspect. Though Neva thought that was less likely now… He never would have done anything to hurt a fellow employee.
“Waign?” Neva called as they entered the very cluttered space. The supposedly deadly netting that had been spread out across the floor the last time she’d been here, had been cleaned up.
“Neva?” Waign’s voice called out faintly from a far back corner behind rows and rows of storage shelves stacked with every mechanical and electronic component and doodad Neva had ever seen and then some. Some of them didn’t look like anything that would be needed for the arena. Neva swore she saw engine parts.
They approached the back where they found the rodian searching through a shelf packed with small buckets of little mechanical pieces. Hand half in a bucket counting out a number of small metal bolts, he barely glanced over at their group before flinching back and nearly spilling the bucket.
“What have you done to it!?” He cried out in alarm, pointing at Bait.
“You said I couldn’t keep a battle droid. He is no longer a battle droid!” Neva said. Neva really didn’t get why Waign had such a big issue with this. He looked as stressed as he had the day Mr. Harpens had dropped the news that he’d have to completely rewire every charge port system in the arena to meet some new safety requirements; like as if she’d personally doubled his workload. She thought misplacing a hundred droids might be a bigger issue than one of them showing up in a pink paint job, though.
“Weren’t you the one who was furious with Thaj for not booking you as a competitor in the last droid derby?” Waign asked, “Now you have one as a pet? Does he know you wanted to demolish a bunch of his unarmed buddies?”
“First of all, he’s not a pet.” Neva said, “Second, I would never join a droid derby now! Bait has changed me!”
“I’m important.” Bait said.
