What's Behind Door Number One?

[on_repeat]

WHO: Echo & YOU-SA OTA
WHERE: The Agrii Ship
WHAT: Lost
WHEN: Yes Now-ish
WARNINGS: TBD but I'm pretty sure it's N/A. Will update as needed.

----

His initial disorientation quickly subsided the moment he realized nothing was familiar.

It was huge, yes. But oh, it was different – very different from the Venator-class Republic Cruiser Echo was used to living on between missions. Through the dark visor of his helmet, he looked up, scrutinizing the lines running along the corridors, the shape of the bulkheads, the lights. However, it soon dawned on him that he would have to learn where everything was before any further venturing was done.

"Which means we're back to square one," he muttered under a breath, shouldering his blaster while he stood there to figure out his next move. And after staring down the way at the nearest door, he sighed. "Well. Looks like I got the time. A little exploring won't kill me..."


* * *

His first point of inspection:

"Large an' empty. I wonder what could've been held in here."


* * *

Second point of inspection:

"Inventory," he almost snorted through his vocabulator. The thrill in his tone (or lack thereof) was evident. "Always loads of fun."


* * *

A third point of inspection:

"...What is this, a refresher?"


* * *

Hits and misses were plenty the more he looked around, but for some reason, it wasn't boring him. Wherever he ended up next, he was sure to find something interesting.

Comments

1

[deal_me_in]

There was a slight thump coming from above, and as one's attention might be drawn to the ventilation grill, leather-wrapped fingers slid carefully between them before applying enough pressure to get it to swing outward. The hands drew back within the duct, and after a moment or two a head popped out to look around.

A hooded head with a metal face. With glowing blue optics. At first he was turned away from the clone trooper and the doorway, but that corrected itself soon enough as the head tilted up. Those blue eyes widened briefly, and then the hooded figure pulled himself back in with a muttered curse of some sort.

[on_repeat]

The blaster was instantly hefted from its resting stance, its barrel pointed upward mere moments after the thump passed. Echo then searched the ceiling, catching a glimpse of the vent moving out of its original position as his HUD lit up his visor, overlaying its marks and symbols on the hands before blinking in and out several times.

To be honest, he wasn't even sure what he was looking at when that metal face appeared. Was it a droid? If it was, then it wasn't functioning properly. "–Who's there?" The ARC trooper moved in, keeping the blaster trained on the vent opening, resting his finger on the side of the trigger.

[deal_me_in]

An awkward silence followed the ARC Trooper's demand. Maybe if the Exo kept quiet, the other would go away.

It was quickly becoming apparent that such would not be the case as he heard no footsteps to signify that the armored figure was leaving. Cayde rolled his eyes, giving a quiet sigh before he spoke up from within the duct.

"Uuh...no one?"

[on_repeat]

Yeah, he certainly wasn't going to leave now that there was an infiltrator hiding in the shaft. "Try again," came a patient reply.

Another tense pause came and went. Withholding a filtered sigh, Echo frowned. "...You still there? Or am I talking to air now?"

[deal_me_in]

Perfect! Yes. All he had to do was be utterly, completely quiet and this guy would leave. Never mind that he was pretty sure he'd never seen that sort of armor before, but then Cayde had only caught a quick glimpse.

He nodded to himself, however confident of his plan, at least until his horn thunked against the top of the shaft he was currently more or less lying within. There was a quick in-drawn hiss as the Exo froze, glancing up to see if any damage had been done to the ductwork and then his optics flicked downwards towards the opening.

"O-oh yeah. Totally just air. Real, real heavy air. Gravity does some strange things to you up here."

[on_repeat]

Well, that was promising. Kind of? At least the thunk answered his question.

Under the helmet, Echo arched a brow. "Gravity, huh?" He stayed where he was, feet not too far apart to distribute his weight evenly and hold him steady. "Must be some real intelligent gravity if I'm having a solid conversation with it."

[deal_me_in]

"Hey, I just said air, stick with the script," said 'air' huffed. "Anyway, you never know, out here in the middle of nowhere. Also that says a lot about you if you're willing to have a conversation, be it air or gravity."

3

[beholding_archivist]

"Even the Agrii have bathrooms." A passing voice remarks, but Jon stops his wandering down the corridor and looks up from his phone and over to the heavily armed person. Who is this guy? He hasn't been on Temba with them, has he? He certainly wasn't part of any of their rescue teams.

And why does he look so familiar...

The Archivist frowns. "Excuse me, but- Who are you?"

[on_repeat]

Echo's posture straightens. Given the fact he's in a new space, the voice isn't familiar to him. Fortunately, it doesn't send him into full alert either, allowing him to reassess the current situation as he forms a reply.

"I guess we can be grateful for the little things," he says, his vocal tone filtered by the vocabulator built into his helmet. Turning to face Jon, he nods, no expression to be seen within the dark T-shaped visor. His blaster is kept in its resting stance. "ARC-1409. Although 'Echo' works in a pinch." This is said with a mild shrug. "And you are?"

[beholding_archivist]

To be fair, Jon's voice could send someone into full alert if he were angry enough to shout at them. But on any normal day there isn't really much about the Archivist that might leave anyone alarmed.

He blinks once at the given name, but then just nods. "Jonathan Sims. But... Jon is fine." He pauses, his eyes falling on the soldier's weapon, still puzzling from where this feeling comes from. "That's not one of the Agrii's..."

[on_repeat]

Jon, Echo. Echo, Jon. Jon is an easy name to memorize. "Good to meet you, Jon," Echo says.

Following Jon's gaze, he glances down at the blaster in his hands. "Oh, this? No, this one came with me." He then nods, remaining oblivious to the Archivist's internal thoughts while indicating the empty holsters on either side of his body. "The only thing, actually. I'm missing most of my equipment."

[beholding_archivist]

"Some sort of soldier then, I assume." It's not a direct question, but the indication of one is clear. A small frown is underlining the question that is none.

And he finally decides to voice what he is wondering about: "I feel like I have seen this armor before."

[on_repeat]

At first, the clone nods, confirming Jon's assumption in a heartbeat. But then there's a slight change in his stance.

"You have?" The question Echo responds with doesn't suspect anything of Jon's wondering. It's inquiring. Maybe even hopeful. "You've seen other clones from the Grand Army of the Republic?" He almost steps forward. "Where are they? Are they somewhere on the ship?"

2

[happybeeps]

The lack of thrill was justified, and echoed by Poe who was in the middle of going over the inventory with BB-8 when they were interrupted.

The droid peered out before sounding the alarm at what he perceived to be some sort of Storm Trooper, barreling towards him with a screech and his arc welder buzzing.

Poe wasn't far behind him, knife drawn as he still didn't have a blaster, but he knew his history well enough to recognize the intruder as a clone trooper. Whether that was good or bad was still a bit shaky.

"Buddy- woah, hang on," he instructed, waving BB-8 off and keeping a wary eye on the trooper. "You new?"

[on_repeat]

He just took a few steps in for the hell of it, but hearing the shrill screech jerked his head in said direction of the BB unit hurtling at him with assumed weapons drawn. He was very sure he had never seen anything like it before, but he knew when he was under attack. "–Hey, whoa!"

Good thing he only stepped back to draw his blaster. When Poe spoke up, he looked up from the oncoming droid, staying where he was while gauging the pilot. "Yeah. You can say that," came a vocabulated reply, human enough to intone some caution in his response. "I figured I could pass the time learning the layout of the ship. What are you doing in here?"

[happybeeps]

"Checking on the inventory, Making sure we've got enough to to last until we get back to Temba.

BB-8 murmured some distrustful beeps, dialect a few generations after Echo's time, but if he understand binary he should have been able to grasp the gist of it.

"Clone Trooper, BB, not Storm Trooper," he corrected.

"M'Poe, Poe Dameron. This is BB-8. He's a bit...jumpy, don't mind him."

[on_repeat]

Now that they were talking to each other, Echo's stance gradually relaxed. Under the helmet, he gave the droid a sidelong glance, barely catching the gist of the tonal differences BB-8 warbled.

"Storm trooper?" Of course he'd sound perplexed by the misnomer, but he nodded at the correction. "ARC-1409, but I'm also called Echo," he said, introductions made. "That one's feisty. Never seen a droid of his make before."

[happybeeps]

"After your time," Poe answered for both, "Well after." He winced a little with the weight of having to dump that on someone. "Good to meet you Echo. I'm from 35 ABY...which, I'm realizing now is not going to mean a whole lot to you. It's uh...more than 50 years after your time. This place, it pulls people from all over time and space."

[on_repeat]

Fifty years. Of course he wouldn't have known what 'ABY' meant. It almost hit him like a flash grenade, but he stood his ground, mulling the time frame over and over again in his mind. "Cayde mentioned different times and places," Echo replied, his throat somewhat taut as he considered this. "But you're still from the same timeline. Have there been any others from our galaxy?"

IDK, whereever is good. But I give to temptation

[foundlingfather]

Echo, you're getting spied on.

The child might be green, but he is tiny, and his dadMando has taught him well, how to hide and spy on people. He's highly suspicious of Stormtroopers(bad interactions will do that to you), and unfortunately clones look just close enough to one, that it has him wary of Echo.

He peeks around the corner of...something, to watch the trooper as he moves.

More storage, a kitchen?

[on_repeat]

Always being watched. Wait, that doesn't happen all the time.

But right now, it feels that way. Perhaps it's the systems in place aboard the ship and Echo is only now processing the fact. Except he easily gets distracted as he looks at everything inside here.

Surely he's not just imagining things, though. Not when his HUD seems to be acting up. "Who's there?" The ARC Trooper looks, keeping his blaster level as he steps forward.

Kitchen works for me

[foundlingfather]

Admittedly, a kitchen isn't the best area to hide in. While there were plenty of shadows, there was also a lot of empty spaces. But there were also cabinets, or some version of them.

The Child makes a small noise as ducks just out of view. He's quick for something with such short legs. However, his cover is blown, when he duck into a storage bin/cabinet. The door makes an obvious noise as it shuts again.

Oops.

[on_repeat]

A glimpse of a shape is seen from the corner of the ARC Trooper's eye, making him a little more wary of his surroundings. Especially after the telltale clicking of a cabinet door closing somewhere along the sides.

He moves, every step efficient and calculated as he turns a corner, checking the line of cabinets to see if anything is out of place. Luckily, he chooses the wrong door, blaster pointed downward as he quickly pulls it open. "...Clear."

Time for dad to step in I think, lol.

[foundlingfather]

Somewhere the child is probably smiling a little, being able to elude him.

And since where ever the kid is, dad's not too far behind. Mando's been searching for the little bugger, hoping he hasn't gotten into trouble or something. Specially since he wasn't with any of his usual watchers. One of the places he checks is the kitchen. He stops in the doorway, and does a double take for a second at the sight of the obviously searching trooper, with a blaster drawn. His hand going to his weapon.

"Looking for something?" His voice from his own helmet is weirdly calm, yet tense. Was it a Stormtrooper? when did one get here?

hahaha XD

[on_repeat]

The ARC Trooper's head swivels, turning to see the Mandalorian across the way. The rest of his body follows suit, his blaster drawing back into a resting stance in an attempt to be less threatening.

The good thing about helmets: they hide any visual cues the face can give away. Vocal tones can do the same, but it's trickier to get a handle on it.

"Thought I heard something in here," Echo answers calmly, almost as if he's answering a superior officer. He continues to study the Mando all the while, brow furrowing now that he recognizes the armor. "Either that or it's my imagination working overtime."