Unexpected

chapter forty-seven: fears

"How did you know this was up here, Echo?" Anakin asks as they walk through the corridor of the ventilation system.

"They got access to my memory and I got access to the Techno Union database." Echo explains. "All their plans, inventory, building schematics, everything."

"So you can find us a safe way out of here?" Rex asks.

"Well, there is a way," Echo looks at the group, "but you're not gonna like it."

The others exchange glances as they follow Echo through the corridors. The door he stops at opens to reveal a pole going horizontally from their tower to the next, hundreds of miles above the ground.

"I don't know about this." Rex says.

"I'm telling you, there's a landing pad on that other building." Echo states.

"So you think there's a ship we can steal?" Hunter asks.

"Well I hope there's a ship we can steal." Echo says.

"Let's hope this trip isn't for nothing." Hunter points.

Elara glances over at the Sergeant. "It beats sitting in the cooling system and waiting for Wat Tambor to find us." She points, stepping out onto the pole behind Echo.

Hunter looks up at her through his helmet. "Well yeah.. I.. I was just saying.. If.."

Crosshair and Tech stifle a laugh at their flustered sergeant. "Let's go Sarge, we don't have all day." Crosshair teases, earning a glare from Hunter.

Just as they reach the halfway point, droids file out of the other tower and onto the pole.

"Turn around! Go back!" Anakin shouts.

As they turn, they find more droids coming through the other tower, leaving them trapped in the middle.

"That fancy button of yours got any juice left in it?" Hunter asks Elara.

She sighs. "Unfortunately not."

"Button?" Echo and Rex ask simultaneously.

"I'll explain later." She assures them.

"I've got an idea." Tech says, emitting a high-pitched screeching sounds his gear as he calls those creatures from earlier. Elara clings to Echo as a small group of them fly up to their position, still not too fond of those reptiles.

"Great. Now how do we get on them?" Rex asks.

"How else? We jump!" Tech says as if it's easy, earning crazy looks from the others.

Anakin looks down at the circling keeradaks and jumps first, landing on one of them.

"Ohhh no. No way am I jumping onto one of those." Elara's heart races as she looks down.

"It beats sitting up here and waiting for these droids to kill us." Hunter states, teasingly mocking her from only a few moments ago.

She glances over at him and Hunter drops his joking tone when he sees the genuine fear in her eyes.

"Hey." Echo grabs her hand, pulling her attention back to him. "I'll jump with you."

Elara looks down again and takes a deep breath.

"On three." Echo says and she nods hesitantly. "One.. Two.." He looks down to time the jump. "Three!" The two of them jump from the pole and safely land on the back of a keeradak. "See? Not too bad." He smiles at Elara, who's still having a minor panic attack.

The others jump onto keeradaks as well, but to their surprise the droids fly after them. After figuring out how to direct the flying creatures, they easily lose the droids in the cloudy atmosphere and return to the Poletec village. Once they land, the alien leader addresses the group—impressed at how they tamed the keeradaks and furious that they have returned.