--Building a New life --Tech x Reader Bad Batch

Chapter 47 --Well, that could have gone worse --

You and Echo continue to crawl further into the vent, and even deeper into the shipyard dock on Ord Mantell. This ventilation shaft was large enough you could both crawl on your hands and knees next to each other, but you staggered so your shoulder pads wouldn't scrape the sides. The heat was unbearable and you felt moist in ways you didn't think were possible.

Thankfully you had arrived at the connection point you were looking for, a droid access port within the ventilation shaft. You had thought Tech was joking when he first mentioned it, but it made more sense now that you had come through. This shipyard was so large that its maintenance was mostly handled by droids. As Tech put it "Droids need more access ports to communicate. Therefore they should be in locations that droids operate within, regardless of the human capacity to reach them".

This access port is one of the many strewn throughout the shipyard for the airflow-droid crew and thankfully standard-make just like Echos attachment arm. Yet another reason he had been chosen to crawl for half a mile inside a shaft. It is true that Tech could have found a way to attach to this access port, but it would be 'easier' for Echo.

As the panel came into sight you could hear Echo exclaim "about time, let's get this over with".

"You're telling me" you chuckle back and both of you sit down near the panel. Echo sets himself up, and plugs in his arm, freezing in place. You watch his body language grow rigid and you report back to the team "we are in".

"Great work" you hear Rex praise.

"Nothing new on our end" you hear Fireball's voice, "They haven't noticed anything".

"My systems also indicate no alerts" Tech's voice comments.

"Are we coming out the same way we came in?" you ask, secretly hoping Tech would direct you elsewhere.

"Affirmative".

--Great-- you think and look back over at Echo. The heat still made you uncomfortable and sitting still didn't seem to help at all. You slipped off your helmet, wiped your neck and forehead and tried to relax. --this should only take a few minutes right?--

Around 20 minutes later Echo detaches which draws your attention back to him. "Got through the first segment" he explained over the comms, pulling a storage device from his side pouch and shoving it into the terminal "Need a little bit more time to get deeper" .

"Anything good?" you hear Wreckers voice followed by Gregor "it's pretty boring out this way".

"Lists" Echo replies over the comms, "going in deeper to see if I can find those locations".

"Be cautious" Tech's voice returns "encryption could cause the system to reject you. The droid access points are tied to the main computers for information access not retrieval".

"Yeah yeah" Echo replies out loud so Tech couldn't hear him and he plugs back into the system. You settle back down against the ventilation shaft wall and wish you could nap to pass the time. You uncomfortably shift around in the maintained heat but are happy to give your aching knees a break.

Unfortunately Echo should have listened to Tech's warning because it was only a few minutes before a system warning went off and shocked him. It wasn't enough to kill him and he quickly pulled out from the port as soon as he felt the electrical current. But you had been frightened when you suddenly saw him seizing and shaking.

Echo muttered a few curse words under his breath "It locked me out".

"Then you had better retreat" Hunter instructed, "Take what you already have and get out of there".