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Tech limped up the stairs into the Marauder, softly gasping under his breath at every twitch of movement. He knew it to be a minor fracture, but it was a fracture of his femur. It would take a long time to heal. Their depleted bacta injections would hardly help the healing process, and besides, he would refuse any if offered as it would basically be a waste of resources. Until his leg was healed, he would command missions from the pilots chair of the ship.
From his position, Tech could just make out Hunter up front, flying the Marauder away from the enemy. The ship jolted slightly, and Tech involuntarily let out another pained gasp. While Hunter was a skilled pilot, he was no expert like Tech himself was.
Vibrations, echoing through from the engine and their exit from Serenno’s atmosphere, travelled up Tech’s leg. A part of his brain that was not focused solely on the flaring pain hypothesised that it would not be long before the leg gave out underneath him. The solution was to sit down, and fast. With no available chairs - or at least, ones that were close enough - Tech simply opted to drop where he stood. Unfortunately, halfway down, his head spun dizzyingly and he found himself sprawling onto his shebs on the cold metal floor.
“Tech, are you okay?”
Trust Hunter to be the first to notice his dilemma, even while flying their ship.
“Fine, thank you. Just need to - catch my breath.”
One would not need enhanced senses to catch the break in his voice, Tech thought ruefully. Hunter entered his field of vision, concern etched onto his face along with his tattoo, Omega at his side. If Tech had the energy to look sideways, he knew he would find that Hunter had handed the controls to Echo, with Wrecker sitting to the side in an attempt to not crowd them.
“Where does it hurt?”
“My upper left leg. I also believe that I have suffered a con- concussion.”
“A box fell on him when we crashed,” Omega offered as a way of explanation. Tech found it lacking. He’d need to teach her to say more in critical situations. “I don’t think he hit his head, though.”
Hunter hummed at the back of his throat, before reaching forward to take off Tech’s helmet. Tech flinched as it was removed. The lights of the Marauder had never seemed this piercing, though he supposed that that was the concussion talking.
Returning his attention to the people in front of him, Tech was just in time to catch both Hunter and Omega’s sympathetic winces. His temple throbbed and he lifted a hand in a futile attempt to stop the pain. Hunter caught it halfway there.
“Don’t touch,” he said. “You’re bleeding.”
“Oh.”
Hunter switched his attention back to Tech’s leg, then came to a decision.
“I’ll have to cut your pants off if I’m to treat this right. Omega, can you help Wrecker in getting the medical kit as well as some of those painkillers?” Omega scurried off, glad to have a job. Hunter and Tech shared a grateful look - the kid had grown up fast in the past few months, but she was still a kid, no matter hard she might try to be a grown up.
Retrieving his trusty blade from his forearm holster, Hunter began the careful slicing of Tech’s pant fabric. Tech found himself strangely remorseful at the loss of the pants. He attempted to justify it as annoyance at the loss of his personal resource, but found that it took too much energy and gave up.
Tech blinked. Mentally he updated the rapidly-growing ‘strange things’ list, as in the span of less than a second, Hunter had cut off his pant leg and had even scanned the mottled blues and blacks that now discoloured his usual olive skin tone with the med scanner. Omega’s face wavered in his vision, concern and even a thread of fright in her eyes.
“Tech, come back! You need to wake up!” He forced his eyes to stay open. This time, Wrecker also came into view. His poor vod looked almost as scared as Omega. He’d never handled any sort of injury to his brothers well.
“Well, at least the bone is in position,” Hunter eventually declared. He set down the med scanner and picked up the roll of white bandages from the medical kit Omega had retrieved. “It should heal on its own. I won’t need to set it.”
“I think I did,” Tech mumbled, a far cry from his usual clipped manner. “Fought - fought a brother. Got hit a few times. He hit my leg, once. And my, um….” He vaguely gestured upwards, vision spinning with a new wave of pain as his leg was bandaged.
“Your head?”
“Yeah. That. That's what I said.”
Tech could almost hear Hunter’s frown. “Right, we need to get painkillers into you. The sooner you can sleep this off, the better.”
Omega’s hand quickly stopped Hunter from preparing the needle. “Tech, did Romar give you anything? We don’t want to mix our stuff with anything he might’ve given you.”
“Romar?”
“We’ll explain later. Did he give you anything, Tech?”
Tech made a negative noise. “Good thinking, kid.” Even with eyes half closed, Tech could see her proud smile.
Gently, Hunter inserted the needle into Tech’s forearm. “We’ll clean you right up,” he said. “But for now get some sleep. You deserve it.”
Grateful, Tech let his eyes fall shut completely just as his vision started turning fuzzy at the edges. As sound drained away, Tech felt a pair of large hands slip gently under his knees and shoulders, carrying him to his bunk. A blanket slipped over him, and Tech, warmed from the inside by a feeling not unlike a hot water bottle, fell into a peaceful sleep.