#thebadbatchtechweek2022

[AO3]

Sad to see this week is almost over. It’s been a great help to me creatively and through it I’ve wrapped up writing in a journal of mine that I’ve had since 2019, and I can’t think of a better way to finish off that journal than with Tech Week. 

Tech flopped down next to the Marauder’s control module.

Their mission hadn’t quite gone to plan and there had been too many close calls for his liking, leaving him in a state of heightened anxiety and a pounding headache.

He awkwardly put in the coordinates to their rendezvous point, trying to not look at the bright flashing buttons for too long, before setting the ship to auto-pilot once he got the roughest part of the fly was over.

Removing his helmet, he began to rub his temples and block out the sounds of his vods settling down behind him.

It was moments like these that he felt the most sympathetic towards Hunter for what he must have to go through on a daily basis.

As he struggled to calm his aching head he heard the door open behind him, he didn’t turn to look at who had entered though.

Not long after though he heard the light clunk of something metallic being placed next to him. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a cup of water placed in front of him.

“Drink,” a harsh, curt, voice said to him. Instantly he knew it was Crosshair, “Maker knows you don’t drink enough anyways,” he criticized.

Tech rolled his eyes, feeling them strain against the movement, grabbing the cup and taking a small sip from it.

He could feel his ori’vod’s glare as he slowly sipped the water rather than quickly drinking it like he would want.

“With the utmost respect, you don’t drink enough water either.” He smirked when out of the corner of his eye he saw Crosshair’s face screw up with frustration.

A silence settled between them as Tech continued to drink and Crosshair watched him, making sure that he got every last drop.

Crosshair’s expression fell into one of thoughtful contemplation, a look he usually got around Tech when he was trying to think of something to say.

“If you want to say something then please do.” he implored, his head was still pounding but it was always better to get Crosshair to just spit out what he wanted to say then wait for him to say it.

Crosshair sighed, “Back there, during the mission, when Hunter nearly got shot you were starting to talk about the native wildlife. You got cut off before you could continue-”

Tech sighed, “Please don’t remind me, I already am aware one of my faults is getting carried away in the heat of battle on somethings that is not important. I’m-”

“I want you to continue!” Crosshair cut in before he had to hear Tech talk down on himself anymore.

Tech froze up, staring at Crosshair in confusion. “You want me to continue?”

“It could be important for later,” he tried to wave away the request as if it wasn’t extremely kind of him.

“Are-are you sure? I can’t say how long I’d talk for and I don’t know how good it will sound since I have a headache and-”

“Tech, I want you to ramble to me about plant life. Just-take it.”

He looked completely flabbergasted, but slowly began to sputter out the beginning of his ramblings.

Crosshair, carefully moving his vod’s helmet, sat down in the co-pilot seat and leaned back. Letting Tech’s words flow through his mind, allowing him to properly relax.

He nodded a few times, prompted him when needed, and overall it was a pleasant experience for both of the brothers. Tech was allowed to finish his ramblings and unload all the information he’d learned about the planet, and Crosshair allowed himself to relax, not feeling the need to worry about what would happen in the future at that moment.

[AO3]

Day 3

I’ve had the most time to think this one over and I’m a little worried about it because of that, but I’m happy with the end result so I hope y’all are too! This also kind of follows up on the ideas I posited yesterday. 

Echo flinched as Tech removed his leg from it’s socket.

After having joined the Bad Batch check ups had become quite frequent and though he tried to avoid them Tech always eventually got him to agree to them.

“You don’t have to pull it out so quickly you know.” Echo grumbled, his nails dug into the palm of his one good hand.

“Would you rather I take my time and draw out the pain?”

Echo rolled his eyes as Tech turned around, beginning the cleaning process.

“When do you think we’ll be able to head back home?” Echo asked, attempting to start an idle conversation rather than letting it slip into an awkward silence.

Tech appeared to stop for a brief moment before continuing his task “We’ll return to your home after the next mission, unless something comes up.”

“I think you mean our home.” he corrected, his tone being jovial but he caught Tech stopping once again.

“I do mean your home,” Tech paused, confusing Echo as to why. He usually was faster than this when it came to conversations. “The Marauder is our home,” and then he saw why he’d paused.

Of course it hadn’t been long since he’d joined Clone Force 99 but he had a tendency to forget for a second that he was different from them. That they’d been together since the beginning while he was only a new addition. He’d been feeling more and more at home with them, and he thought the feeling was mutual. But clearly there were still subjects that showed him that he was, indeed, an outsider looking in.

Before he could say anything Tech went on, “You were a Reg once, we obviously had different experiences. You never had to deal with the lunch hall all staring at you, like, by existing, you’d personally insulted each of them. You didn’t have to deal with always being viewed as lesser just because your appearance was different. You may deal with it now, but you didn’t have to grow up with it. You didn’t have to train in that environment. You didn’t have to prove each one of them wrong by succeeding anyways. You were a Reg, we weren’t.”

His tone was tactile and certain in what he was saying, but Echo could pick up on the pain that Tech clearly felt in stating it.

So Echo couldn’t be offended by it.

He had been a Reg, and maybe if he’d met the batch sooner he would have acted just like every other Reg had acted towards them. With mistrust and disdain.

“I might have been a Reg, but my squad wasn’t exactly top tier. A lot of our vods looked down on us since we could barely make it through the easiest trials.”

Tech hadn’t ever heard Echo bring up his old squad like this. Only in passing had he overheard Echo ask Captain Rex what had happened to “Fives”, but he’d never brought them up directly to any member of the Bad Batch.

So Tech decided to indulge Echo, see if he could get a better idea of what he meant. “What was your squad called?”

“Domino squad, we were certainly a work of art. Fives, Hevy, Droidbait, Cutup, and I didn’t really get along. Our trainers hated us for it too, took us till the last minute to pass and be able to be approved for combat.” “I remember hearing about your squad, your turn around time after that inconvenience in your final exam was incredible. I studied it in the hopes that maybe we could apply it to some of our own tactics.”

Echo laughed, the idea of Tech trying to decipher the crazed tactics the squad had come up with just to get to the field was amazing.

“Glad we could be of some use!” Echo chuckled, the way he said it though Tech could tell he was thinking about how little use his squad had ended up being.

“I’m sure they were all great vods to have,” he attempted to comfort Echo but didn’t think he could do much.

“They were, sometimes when I wake up I still think one of them made it out too though. Like Fives or even Hevy, for a brief moment I’ll think they’re sleeping right above  me and then…they aren’t.”

Tech finished the cleaning and turned back around to put the leg back in place. “Well, we can’t replace them but you do still have a place in our home. Perhaps you can even start to call it your home as well.”

Echo’s face was one of thoughtful melancholy as he remembered his fallen aliit, when Tech said that he had a place in the batch he smiled softly at him. “I’d like that a lot.”

“Good, because you're stuck with us for the long haul.” Tech said succinctly as the leg locked back into place.

“Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere!” Echo assured, “I’ll be here for the long haul.”

[AO3]

Late I know but school work was a lot more than I expected.

I want to participate in @tbbtechweek‘s prompt, so I wrote this up in about an hour. I’ll do my best to do the rest of the days as well. 

Currently Tech was fidgeting away on his next great idea.

This idea being a vague outline of something he thought he could possibly pull off.

A vague outline that wasn't coming together in the slightest.

He had a knack of doing this, coming up with something and, when he had the time, going to town on trying to create it.

Though of course these rapid attempts at creation usually didn’t work out.

What was most annoying about these endeavors, though, were when his aliit noticed.

Depending on the person they would either engage in a positive or annoying way.

Hunter and Wrecker generally fell into the positive category, though Wrecker could easily push his buttons on accident, asking enough questions to try and understand what he was doing but knowing they wouldn’t be able to ever fully understand.

And then there’s Crosshair.

The two having a poking and prodding relationship.

They knew how to get under the other’s skin, how to get what they want from each other, and how to show they care for one another.

“Creating another disaster?” Crosshair’s voice cut through Tech’s thoughts, surprised but not at the same time.

“They’re not a disaster!” he muttered, already done with what his vod was doing.

“The last one nearly blew up the ship,” he countered.

“You’re exaggerating the damage it could have done,” his tone becoming one of annoyance at Crosshair bringing that instance, making Crosshair sneer.

“I don’t think I am, what are you making this time anyways. Looks like a bunch of wires to me.”

“Well I’d think it was obvious,” he snapped back at Crosshair. The sniper’s sneer disappeared at that statement, he hated when Tech pulled that phrase on him.

A silence fell between the two, as neither knew what to say to each other after that exchange.

Finally, Tech relented “It’s an enhanced version of my goggles, I’m hoping to be able to see possibly a thousand clicks away. It’s not working out at the moment…”

Crosshair slowly nodded his head, considering what to say, “Do you…need anything then?”

Tech smiled softly at the gesture, “Not currently, but I’ll let you when I do.”

He grunted before leaving Tech to his wires.

The sound of metal and electrical wire being mashed together reverberated through the claustrophobic room making Tech feel comfortable again with his work.

[AO3]

Hey I did this one in a timely manner! And it’s longer! Funny that I unintentionally did todays prompt yesterday by accident. Eh this was the first idea I came up with so I hope it isn’t too all over the place. 

Tech’s tiny hands were covered in cuts as he attempted to fix his goggles.

He’d turned off almost all the lights in the room, say for the desk lamp he was hunched near, in the hopes that his ori’vods wouldn’t find out what happened.

His goggles had been taken by the other clones.

This wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but it was the first time they’d broke.

He could still hear the gearing laughter they emanated as the regs ran away from the scene of the crime.

He’d had to pick up every piece of glass in the futile hope that maybe he could fix them himself. That maybe, he could avoid anyone finding out.

He was struggling though.

He was wearing an older pair of goggles, with an outdated prescription, to try and make out what he was doing.

The biggest problem though, was keeping his panic under control.

The idea of one of the trainers finding out and punishing him was part of it; his greatest fear was his vod’s finding out, and what they’d do in response.

As his mind wandered he didn’t notice how dangerously close his finger tip was getting to one of the glass pieces.

“Ah-” he hissed, pulling his finger away as the piece dug into one of the few tips that weren’t covered in bandages already. He began to suck on, attempting to help with the blood now flowing out of it.

He needed to focus, it was a delicate operation after all.

“Tech? You okay” Wrecker’s voice cut through the dark room. Tech froze up in fear as he looked at the mess in front of him.

Glass shards everywhere, blood droplets staining the table, and a smattering of glue. He knew instantly that he wouldn’t be able to hide it in any meaningful way.

Wrecker was better than Hunter or Crosshair, but still not what he wanted to be dealing with.

“Wrecker- I didn’t hear you come in!” his nervousness creeped into his voice in a more obvious way than he’d wanted.

He turned around, facing Wrecker as he did his best to use his body to shield the mess behind him.

“Well you were focused on- whatever you were focused on. You okay though? I thought-”

“I’m fine!” he said, cutting off his brother in a manner far too quick to appear fine.

“Just a minor shock is all, you know how I can be caught off guard by those.” as he explained this he unconsciously began to motion with his hands.

He was avoiding eye contact with Wrecker but out of the corner of his eye he saw in the dim light as his vod’s expression changed from one of general worry to palpable panic.

He looked down at his hands and let out a quick “Ah-”. Blood still dripped down from the newest cut adding emphasis to the already disconcerting amount of bandages on his hands.

“What happened! Your hands are- I’ll get Hunter to-” Wrecker began to head for the door on instance, but just as he reached it Tech cried out.

“No! Please don’t tell him. I can handle this myself!” He was trying to come up with some way to ease his overly caring ori’vod. “I’m fine Wrecker, really.”

Wrecker shook his head, stepping away from the door and instead heading back over to Tech at the desk. Grabbing Tech’s bleeding finger and applying pressure on it, doing his best to try and make the bleeding stop.

“Wrecker please, I don’t want Hunter to panic. You know how he gets when he panics! He’ll get one of the trainers and they’ll blow this all out of proportion!” He pleaded, knowing full well that what he was saying was true.

Wrecker bit his lip, he also knew Tech was right but he also knew that he needed medical attention for his hand.

Tech read Wrecker’s expression easily and came up with a compromise. “If it’ll give you comfort, you could always tend to them. Only if you don’t tell Hunter about this!”

At that suggestion Wrecker let out a heavy sigh, looking down at his younger adiik he nodded begrudgingly.

“I won’t tell Hunter, if you let me take care of your hands.”

Tech smiled at Wrecker, glad he’d been able to talk him away from causing the scenario he’d feared would come to pass when the goggles first shattered before him in the hallway.

“You’ll tell me what happened though, right?” Wrecker asked, he stepped away from Tech to turn on the lights and grab the medic kit.

“Only if you won’t be mad.” he replied, following Wrecker over to his bunk.

“Fine, I hate having to make all these promises you know!” he bemoaned.

“I know, but it’s important to me that you.” Wrecker began to disinfect the wounds and it dawned on Tech that he wouldn’t be able to hide this forever.

[AO3]

This has been one of the most fun creative experiences I’ve done in awhile. I wish I’d had more time to work on this prompts but I’m still happy with what I’ve done. I’m glad to have been apart of this and shared my love of this absolute nerd. So thank you @tbbtechweek for setting this up, and I hope y’all enjoy this send off to the week. 

“Why did they have to make us so different!” Tech yelled.

The Batch had just gone through another round of bullying. It had gotten to such a point that Wrecker and, surprisingly, Hunter had snapped. Beating the Regs to a bloody pulp after they’d hurt Crosshair. They’d been dragged off not long after, leaving Tech and Crosshair in the lurch.

“I-If they had just made us more like the Regs, or even made us look like them then we wouldn’t have to deal with this.

He’d gotten this frustrated before, but to hear him yelling was an odd experience for Crosshair. As while he listened to him release this stress into the world he was tending to his bloody nose and bruised lip.

“We could have gone through more extreme training, it might be tougher but we could still-”

“That wouldn’t be possible,” Crosshair cut in, “We’d still end up where we are now. Look at Hunter, he’s the most like them and they still go after him!”

Tech gasped for breath, having winded himself from all the yelling, tears began to fall down his cheeks as he realized his vod was right. There was no way they could escape this, in any timeline.

“It’s just- in our nature Tech. We can’t be like them, no matter what way you look at it. But they can’t be like us, and that makes us better than them!”

Tech sank to the floor, nodding along to what his ori’vod was saying.

Crosshair sat down next to Tech, rubbing his back to comfort him.

He leaned against Crosshair, wrapping his arms around his vod and squeezing him tight.

“Then I guess we need to show them how much better we are…” his voice wavered but the determination within it still shined through. Looking up at Cross he could tell that he was excited by that statement.

“We’ll show them all.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tech sighed heavily, before him stood the same ori’vod who had once told him that.

As Wrecker demanded why he hadn’t returned to them he felt the need to give a reason.

A reason Wrecker could understand, and something that he could latch onto as to why a member of their aliit would betray them like this.

“Let it go Wrecker,” the words felt heavy in his mouth. He didn’t want to say what he knew he had to, and yet. “Crosshair has always been severe and unyielding.” The next part hurt him the most, “It is his nature. You cannot change that, he cannot change that.”

“Why are you defending me?” Crosshair asked, Tech could almost sense a bit of pain in the man’s voice.

“I am not,” he quickly clarified, “understanding you does not mean that I agree with you.”

He watched Crosshair intently, his eyes shot down for a moment before meeting Tech’s again. He could tell then that what he had said had indeed hurt his vod. But there was no changing the facts.

There was no changing what Crosshair had done to the Batch and the choices each side had made. There was no changing how many times they’d left Crosshair behind or how many times Crosshair chose to not reach out to them. Each side had made their choices and now had to deal with the consequences.

[AO3]

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do this since I’ve had a really bad headache all day. But I persisted and I’m pleased with the end result! 

“Locked onto the coordinates…” Tech muttered to himself, pain dripped from his voice as he knew what awaited the Batch on Kamino.

He’d hoped they wouldn’t have to see what the Empire had done to their home. He’d hoped that maybe they could avoid ever having to think about that place again, besides possibly having some idle conversation about what they each thought happened to it. But now they were going back home.

Though he also knew it wasn’t really home.

It never had been for them.

Maybe for the Regs, but not for Clone Force 99.

For them home had been the Marauder since the moment they’d gotten on board the customized ship.

So they’d only had a home for the three years the war had been happening, that was a small fraction of their lives compared to the time they spent on Kamino. They felt safer on the Marauder after all, it was a place to get away from the hostile world that saw them as nothing more than soldiers made to be thrown a line of droids and give their life.

And yet they still referred to Kamino as their home.

It was a conundrum Tech had never been able to understand.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with frustration.

They wouldn’t be having to go back if it wasn’t for him.

This all could have been avoided if it wasn’t for him.

This wouldn’t be happening if he’d been better.

If he’d mentioned Omega sooner.

If he’d mentioned the chips sooner.

If he’d done anything sooner!

“Hunter said I wouldn’t be going back.” Omega said, cutting through Tech’s self loathing spiral.

He hadn’t heard her come in leading to him quickly turning around to acknowledge her presence, something else to focus on rather than how he’d messed everything up.

“Yes well, none of us were planning to go back…” his voice lingered on the last few words, giving a brief view into how he saw the situation. How he’d failed and now they had to return back to their false home.

His face didn’t give this away though, and while she had the option to not bring it up Omega decided to confront the obvious issue Tech was struggling with.

“This isn’t your fault, you know. No one could have stopped what happened.”

“Perhaps, but while we couldn’t have stopped the chips I still could have mentioned that you were an altered clone. We could have taken you with us, Crosshair in toe, and never have gone back to Kamino to get you. Never have lost Crosshair…”

Omega placed her hand on Tech’s shoulder, attempting to comfort her ori’vod.

“You can think about all the ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’, but it won’t change what happened. You could have done that, but you didn’t. And right now we need you to focus on the now so that we can be ready to save Hunter and Crosshair.” She gave him her best hopeful smile, trying to be optimistic for the both of them.

“Did you learn all that from Nala Se?” He attempted to joke.

Her smile widened as levity was brought to the conversation. “I’ll be ready, and make sure this time we bring both of them home,” he assured her, determined to fix his mistakes this time and bring his vods back.

“We all will, we’ll make sure they come home!” she said, her tone exuding a maturity beyond her years.

[AO3]

This was generally a smooth write just wish I’d gotten it done sooner. Either way I hope it’s an enjoyable read. 

“Tech, are you sure you know what you're doing?” Hunter questioned.

“I went through the primary training to learn to fly any ship at the Republic’s disposal. So yes, I know what I’m doing.” Tech replied irritated.

He’d been through every trial he could to prepare for this, so what if it was his first time flying!  He could still do it! He would still do it!

“That may be true, but this is still your first time. Just, take it slow.”

Tech looked over at Hunter with a look of absolute confusion. They’d gotten their own personal ship and wanted to take it slow!

“Teeech,” Hunter scolded, already being able to guess what his vod was planning to do. “Take it slow!”

He rolled his eyes at Hunter, “I could follow your advice-”

“You should follow my advice,” Hunter corrected.

“And we could have a less than memorable first flight,” Tech continued, ignoring that Hunter had cut into what he was saying.

Hunter began to lean over towards the controls so he could have an easier time prying them from Tech’s hands, if need be.

“Or, I could do this-” he jammed the wheel forward before Hunter could enact his plan.

“Hold on!” he yelled as the thrusters burst to life forcing the ship forward at startling speed. Hunter’s body slammed forward and two other slams could be heard from the door behind them. A set of loud expletives being heard not too long after.

Tech had a wild grin on his face as they cut through the dreary clouds of Kamino into the vast stary abyss beyond the planet. The galaxy opening up before them for the first time.

Tech’s breath hitched as he saw the wider galaxy for the first time. He’d read copious amounts about as many planets as he could. He’d seen thousands of schematics about where planets and stars were in relation to one another. And he’d heard descriptions of what it would look like when they got off of Kamino, and yet he was still shocked by it.

They weren’t on Kamino anymore. They had their own ship. They could go anywhere, they may have missions they needed to do but they could still go anywhere. He looked over at Hunter and saw a similar look of awe and realization on his face.

“Maybe…next time I can take it slow.” he muttered, making Hunter look over at him with a nasty glare.

“Yeah, I think that's fair!” Hunter rolled his eyes as he sat down next to Tech in the co-pilot seat. “But, it was kind of fun.”

“I knew you’d say that!” Tech said triumphantly.