Chapter 9: working together

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After hours of walking and watching the sun rise, the squads finally found something.

"Not our target, it's an outpost. Should we take it?" Hunter asked Rex.

"Probably easier than going around"

"Alright, what are your orders? We pick them off from the tree line one by one?" Hunter asked.

"Actually, I was thinking we'd take a page from your book. Rush them head on"

Hunter chuckled before saying,
"I like your style"

Everyone started shooting the droids guarding the outpost while moving closer in, Juliet followed close to hunter onto the lifting platform, wrecker stayed behind and finished the last of the guarding droids off. They took down the droids in the control room easily before wrecker made his way up.

"Is it over already? Aw, man!" Wrecker said

"Not bad, for a reg" hunter said while lightly punching Rex's shoulder.
Hunter was mad at the way he talked to Juliet hours before, but he still had a duty to follow the captains orders. Juliet hadn't said a word or even looked in Rex's direction since she shoved him to the ground.

"All right, there it is. The cyber center" Rex said looking out the large window.

"It looks like the cyber center itself has minimal guards, about 30 droids.
Oh- wait wait.
I got a massive signal coming in.
A whole platoon of droids is heading this way." Tech said as the incoming information came in.

"Someone's noticed our handiwork back at the crash site."

"Yeah. Make sure you keep an eye on those incoming separatist forces. I want to know when they reach this outpost"

"You got it cap"

"We've gotta move swiftly"

"We'll grab some speeder bikes and flank them from the back" hunter said

Juliet looked at hunter before moving out,
"Can I stay with you hunter?"

"Of course" hunter said smiling.
Soon after Juliet, hunter, wrecker and tech got on the speeder bikes and went to the cyber center. Juliet was behind hunter sharing a speeder.

"Is everyone in position?" Rex asked

"Affirmative" hunter responded as they silently moved closer in.  Crosshair responded as he got set up on a hill in the distance, away from everyone like how he preferred.

"Cap, you wanted to know when those separatist forces breached the outpost. Well they're getting there just about now" tech told Rex.

Jesse was the first to shoot at the droids causing everyone else to follow. Juliet followed hunter, tech and wrecker to get the door open, she heard tech and wrecker argue about something right before wrecker kicked the door in, their attention was now on shooting down the droids inside.

"Tech get to work on these computers. we'll go get the regs " hunter told his brother, Juliet stayed with tech in case he needed help, suddenly Rex appeared, taking off his helmet and glancing at Juliet briefly before looking to tech.
"Alright I'm in. What are we looking for?" Tech asked Rex

"We're looking for the algorithm using this sequence"
Rex handed tech a chip to look up.

"Found it!" Tech said quickly

"This is strange. it's not a program it's a live signal from another planet. Skako minor"

"A live signal?" Rex said as he and Juliet looked at each other.

"Here it is. It's audible"

"Patch me in. I want to hear it" Rex said

Tech brought the signal to life so they could all see the frequency,

"What is that?" Tech questioned.

Juliet looked at Rex as he was deep in concentration.

"It sounds almost.. almost human"

"It can't be!" Rex said out loud
"Tech find out who is sending that signal, ask who that is"

"CT-1409" the voice responded

"I- I don't believe it"

The voice kept repeating its CT number as Rex looked astonished.

"We're gone. Rex let's go"
Hunter said while still trying to shoot incoming droids, Rex didn't move.
"Rex now!" Hunter demanded

"Rex come on" Juliet said nudging Rex gently out of the room finally making him move.
They got outside shooting still when Crosshair arrived with transportation out of the area.

Crosshair was driving with hunter sitting to his right. Wrecker and tech were standing in the middle, kix and Jesse were sitting on the right side, Rex and Juliet were sitting on the left side , all staying quiet on the ride back to republic lines.

"That number Rex. What did it mean?" Juliet asked

"CT-1409.. that was echo's number. He's alive." Rex said not looking at her.

"Was he a friend of yours?"

"He was a former arc trooper of my battalion. We thought he got blown up on a mission a while back, but it seems he's alive and being held prisoner by the separatists."

"I'm sorry, we'll find him and return him back where he belongs" Juliet said while putting a hand on his arm, she held it there for a second before removing it, not wanting to trigger the man.

"Sorry" she said quietly.

"I'm sorry, I was being cruel to you earlier. I didn't mean to I just- I had a lot of information thrown at me. It was overwhelming. Everything about today has been overwhelming" Rex said a he bowed his head low.

Juliet grabbed his hand making him look up at her.
"You shouldn't be apologizing, you had every right to be cruel. I can't apologize enough for the things I did, the things I hid from you."

"It's in the past now, there's nothing we can change about it now Juliet."

"I hope you can forgive me one day."

"Already done" Rex said while giving her hand a gentle kiss, not being missed my hunter out of the corner of his eye. He trusted Juliet with Rex, but he didn't think Rex would make a move on her, now he had to keep his eyes more open.

Juliet and Rex smiled before she laid her head on his shoulder, he rested his on top of hers and closed his eyes, stressed from all the information he learned today. Rex opened his eyes for a brief Moment and saw hunter looking at him with hard eyes. Hunter blinked at him before turning his head back around.

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