THE RECRUIT

YIRT: Storm

Classified Imperial Base
Medical Bay 03
Daro
LST: 03:01:27 // DAY: 19
Taipan

As medical bay 03's doors swish open, Taipan notices a strange table, almost resembling a bed, towards the back of the room. A ring encircles around the head of the medical bed. At the foot of it is a panel of buttons and a holoscreen. She assumes it's another kind of operating table. One she's never seen before. Sycorax didn't have a medical wing or a designated cell block for the infirm and injured. If you broke a leg one show you died the next.

Tapcaf and Hardcopy both look up from their datapads as Mech, Sparkstick, and Taipan enter the room.

"Comms are offline," says Hardcopy. He stands on the other side of the bed lowering his datapad.

Taipan sees the back of Mech's head nod and he takes off his helmet. He walks over to the medical table and sets his helmet on the floor next to the bed.

"Tai'ika," he says leaning against the frame and takes a deep breath. "It's possible to remove the chips but it poses fatal or life changing risks."

Taipan takes a sip of caf and looks at each of the commandos. Tapcaf sits at the foot of the bed his fingers hovering over the buttons. Sparkstick pulls up a chair and straddles it backward his jaw clenched and his eyes dark.

Mech says, "After Operation Codex, assuming we survive, we must execute ECHO-2. Since there are no ships equipped with hyperdrives in the hangars, we have to wait for the Lambda shuttle Admiral Rampart will arrive on. We commandeer his ship and contact Rex before we enter lightspeed. Directory is still TBD."

Taipan chews the inside of her lip thinking. "I'm not sure how long these chip procedures are going to take but if you guys don't show up to your posts the place might go on lockdown."

"So, cover for us. You have access to the duty roster and lockdown procedures. Everything can be remotely accessed."

"So after Operation Codex what's the plan?"

Tapcaf presses some buttons saying, "Recovery might take a whole day I'm not sure."

"Okay," Mech says, "That might give us enough time to reset the roles before the Admiral shows up. Tai, make sure our roles are set when he's on base and when we're ready to leave we'll break for the hanger one by one so as to not draw attention."

"Longest shift rotations are between meals," Taipan says recalling some of her research on the duty rosters.

Mech nods. "Good. So assuming whenever the Admiral gets here we'll head for the hanger during the meal rotation. Do you know what a Lambda shuttle looks like?"

"It'll probably be heavily guarded," Taipan says taking a drink from her cup, "Rampart will be watching me like a jaig hawk, though. If he sees me going down to his ship he'll know something is up. I already think he's on to us."

"No. He still thinks you're on the Empire's side. The clones are the ones he doesn't trust. So he won't be expecting you to stun him in his own office. It'll give us ten minutes to get our gear and head down to the hanger."

Hardcopy clears his throat and says, "You're our eyes in the sky, Tai'ika."

Mech nods at each of his squad members and says, "We'll be waiting for your transmission to let us know which hanger the shuttle is in."

"I suppose this could work," she says setting down her cup and helmet on the counter against the wall. "ECHO-2 is more plausible than Operation Codex. You do know this right?"

She turns. They didn't have to answer her question; they are aware of the odds. Do something! Her brain yells at her. They're looking to you for some sort of comfort.