Valkyries P.O.V
All most as soon as we returned to the bridge, Hunter took out his binoculars, sighed and said
"It's Crosshair, all right" Tech then said
"He won't be able to detect us. I'm blocking their scanners"
"That won't stop him. Come on" The four of us ran back through the cruiser to meet up with Wrecker and Echo who were sorting out our cargo.
Once we met back up with them in one of the corridors Echo said
"How many troopers are we talking about?" Tech replied
"Three attack shuttles' worth" Wrecker gestured to the stuff and said
"We already got what we came for. Let's get to the Marauder." I faintly heard something, shushed Wrecker and placed my hand and the wall. I then said
"They're already on board the cruiser. We need a covert way out" Echo then said
"They'll do a forward-to-aft sweep. We can alternate corridors. Come on" and so that's what we did.
We crept through the halls of the old cruiser trying to make as little noise as possible. Hunter was upfront with his blaster handy mainly for the light though. Echo and Wrecker were at eh either side of the convoy. Tech and I were bringing up the rear and Omega was safely in the middle of us all. As we got to corridor number 3 Hunter said
"Talk to me, Tech"
"I'm trying to tap into the regs' comms so we can monitor their movements" AFter he said that a thud echoed in the corridors. Hunter turned towards the sound before saying
"Someone's coming" Immediately we all took cover and watched the other troopers walk past without even acknowledging us.
As they walked away we came out from behind our cover as Tech said
"I'm in" Crosshairs voice was the first one we heard
"All squads."
"Yes, sir."
"Push the targets towards the hangar. We'll pin them down"
"Roger that" As the comm chatter shut off Omega said
"Aren't we headed to the hangar?" Hunter looked at her and said
"Not anymore. We'll cut through the artillery deck" I then said
"It's not far from here. Should be easy enough"
########
As we walked onto the deck I ran my hand across the cannon and said
"It's been a while since i've been near one of these" Echo, Tech and Wrecker then walked to the edge of the platform to see how far down our decent would be if we were to go out that way. Wrecker stumbled backwards and said
"Uh… Okay, I'm not going out that way" The doors then burst open and troopers ran in blocking our exit
"There they are" Another trooper in black armour then said
"Stand down" The door then opened and Crosshair walked up whilst saying
"Tapping our comms to track our movements? So predictable" Wrecker scoffed and said
"Nice to see you too, Crosshair" Tech then mumbled
"Echo, scomp in and reroute reserve power to the cannons"
"If these cannons fire, this whole deck will collapse"
"Exactly" luckily Echo and Tech were between two of the cannons so couldn't be seen by Crosshair and the troopers. Crosshair then said
"Look at you all, scavenging like rats. How pathetic" Hunter the spoke
"Why come after us?"
"You're traitors" I then heard one of the troopers mutter
"Move into position" Echo then whispered
"Done" Hunter then went onto say
"Crosshair, wake up. You're being controlled by an inhibitor chip" Omega stepped round Hunter slightly and said
"He's telling the truth. The Kaminoans put chips in all the clones. Remember what I told you in the brig? You can't help it" He looked at Omega for a second before saying
"Aim for the kid"
As instinct Hunter pulled Omega out of the way and placed her between us. As he did that he said
"Your issue's with me, not her" Crosshairs gaze shifted from Hunter to me
"You're meant to be dead" I reached round under my cloak and grabbed my sabre from the clip at the back of my trousers and said
"Yeah, well you know me Cross. I'm not that easy to get rid of"
"How many clones did you have to slaughter to survive?" Before I could respond I heard Wrecker mumble
"Hurry up" Echo replied
"Systems online in three, two… " I pulled my sabre round before saying
"Too many"
"One" The cannon then fired knocking Crosshair and his small troop down. I backflipped away from Hunter and with a single swipe of my sabre took out two troopers as he took out two others.
"Go!" The deck began to shake and collapse around us. When the roof caved in Hunter grabbed Omega and dove out of the way
"Look out!" Wrecker took out three other troopers by throwing them off the deck. He then gathered up some of the cargo as we made a beeline for the exit. However, a trooper blocked our exit with a flame thrower, Wrecker shouted as the others dived for cover
"Whoa!" I stood infront of Wrecker and as a reflex I lifted my hand up. The fire was absorbed by my powers. Red veins surged down my arm as the trooper stopped his advance. I felt my eyes shift as I said
"Thanks for the boost… Incendia" Fire then came out of my hand knocking the trooper back. Wrecker cheered and said
"Direct hit. Yeah!"
"Come on!"
#######
We ran back through the halls with Tech leading the way. However, we were expecting him to lead us the the engine chamber. One by one we jumped down onto a small ledge and as Tech helped Omega onto the ledge, Wrecker said
"The ion engine chamber? Why'd you bring us here?" Tech replied
"Because this is our alternate egress off the cruiser" Wrecker groaned before joining us on the ledge
"I don't even know what that means. Whoa. Uh-oh" I then said
"You okay back there Wrecker?"
"Peachy"
We made it to the edge of the chamber and reached the turbines. I was the first to slide down the side of the turbine, closely followed by Hunter, then Echo and then Tech. Before Omega came down Hunter looked up and said
"We're almost there. A little further" As she slid down Echo said
"I didn't think you meant we'd be escaping through the engine" Tech replied
"I could not have been clearer" As Wrecker slid down on the crate of explosives Omega looked around and said
"Whoa, I've never been inside an ion engine before" Wrecker replied
"It'd be weirder if you had" We jumped over another level as tech said
"These chambers are quite the engineering marvel. This blast primer coating is capable of withstand…" Wrecker shoved him out of the way as he said
"No one cares! Keep movin'"
We finally reached the end of the turbine only to have Wrecker say
"Well? Now what?" Tech kept walking forward and so was caught off guard when a bullet hit the metal next to him. He stumbled slightly and was about to fall over the edge
"Whoa! Whoa" Both Hunter and I grabbed him and pulled him back behind cover just as we heard Crosshairs voice
"Try again, Hunter. I told you before, you're surrounded!" Hunter looked back at us and said
"Double back" Just as we turned to head back the way we came a familiar rumbling sound echoed through the chamber. Omega then said
"What is that?" Hunter answered her
"Sounds like the engine's coming online. But that's not possible, right?"
"Technically, it is. I restored the ship's main power core when I accessed the central system, which means the engines can be activated" Omega looked at us and said
"Crosshair wouldn't do that, would he?" No one answered her, instead Echo said
"How much time do we have?" I then said
"It takes less than two minutes for an Ion engine to boot up" The rumble got louder as Omega said
"What do we do?" Hunter turned to me and said
"Val, can you contain it?" I looked at Hunter and said
"Yeah IF I had full control of my abilities and since the clone uprising… Hunter, I can't"
The noise got louder as the engine sparked to life. Everything around us began to shake as Wrecker said
"Uh, what about Plan 7?" We all shared a look between us before Echo said
"Plan 7 has nothing to do with this situation whatsoever" Wrecker then replied
"Well... Well, you think of something!" He brought the crate from over his shoulder to get a better grip on it, I then mumbled
"The explosives" Hunter heard me and said
"Can we use the explosives from the armoury to disable the engine?" Tech looked at us for a second before saying
"It won't cause a large enough reaction to affect the thermal chamber. But if we place a series of charges around this cone, we may be able to break away from the cylinder while destabilizing the core" Omega then said
"Breakaway? you mean fall? All the way down?" Echo looked at her and said
"It's that or be incinerated"
"Everyone take an explosive. Tech, Omega, up top with me" We each took an explosive from the crate and placed them in designated points around the chamber ring. Soon the rumble of the engine collided with beeping from the explosives. We quickly regrouped at the base of the engine just as it began to fully ignite. Wrecker held up the detonator and said
"Everybody, get down!" he pressed the button and one by one the explosives detonated, shaking the entire room. The chamber soon began moving, knocking us all off balance.
"Whoa!" The turbine began to fall with us inside it.
"Hold on!" We each managed to find something to hold onto but when the chamber it the ground Hunter, Omega and Echo lost their grip. Luckily Omega landed on Hunter and he grabbed hold of her just as they rolled over the side
"I've got you" The chamber then broke in two splitting the group up.
When it stopped rolling, I coughed due to the amount of dust, got up and said
"Lets never do that again" I coughed again and brushed the dust off my trousers as Wrecker said
"Agreed" I walked over some rubble and went over to Tech. I pulled him to his feet as Echo pressed his commlink and said
"Hunter, we landed on the port side. What's your status?"
"We're by the engine, and we've got company. Meet back at the Marauder"
##############
Omegas P.O.V.
Hunter and I managed to get to the Marauder rather quickly and without seeing any other troopers. However, when we looked over at the ship, we saw a group of clones lying on the ground around the ship. I then muttered
"What happened to them?" Hunter didn't say anything, instead, he made his way over to the nearest. He examined the trooper and said
"Someone's here. This wasn't the scrappers' handiwork" a new voice then echoed in the hanger
"Wasn't much work" We looked up and saw someone leaning against the open hatch of the Marauder.
"Omega. Get behind me" I did as I was told and hid behind Hunter. The man tipped his large hat before he began walking down the stairs whilst saying
"I've taken down so many clones over the years. Once you figure out one, the rest are easy" Hunter replied
"You're in for a surprise"
"I doubt that" I then muttered
"He's a bounty hunter" He shifted his red eyes to me as he said
"Ain't you smart?" He then looked at his small droid and said
"The kid's got it all figured out" the droid then said
"You're in trouble now." Hunter then asked
"Who hired you?" the bounty hunter adjusted something on his wrist before saying
"Son, that's confidential information…. Now hand her over"
Hunter then stepped away from me getting ready for a blaster fight. I crouched down next to the other trooper as he said
"She's with us. She's not going anywhere" the bounty hunter too a couple steps away from the ship and rested his hand on his hip near his blaster as he said
"That's unfortunate… for you" Hunter too reached round for his blaster and the pair of them just stared at each other before they pulled out their fired at the same time but Hunters blast ended up hitting the droid
"My booster!" Hunter dropped his blaster and collapsed
"Hunter!" I scrambled over to him and shook his shoulders
"Hunter!" I rested my head on his chest plate and let out a sob before muttering
"Hunter?" I went to grab my bow but it was knocked out of my hands by the droid
"Sorry, little lady" I then went to make a move for Hunters gun but before I could reach it everything went black…
##################
Valkyries P.O.V.
"So where exactly is the ship?" Echo replied
"Just round this corner" I was the first to turn the corner and when I did my heart sunk
"HUNTER!" I didn't hesitate as I ran into the hanger. I skidded across my knees and stopped beside him
"Hunter! Can you hear me!?... Tech!" Tech immediately brought out his datapad and scanned Hunter.
"He's alive"
Echo crouched beside Hunter, Shook him gently and said
"Hunter. Wake up" Hunter just groaned in response. Wrecker then spoke
"What happened? Where's Omega?" Echo then said
"He's been shot in the chest plate" Tech then said
"We have to get him on board"
"Incoming!" As Wrecker and Tech began firing at the Troopers, Echo helped me get Hunter to his feet.
"Got him?"
"Yeah, I got him" Echo and Wrecker covered us as I helped Hunter onto the ship and as Tech fired up the engines.
As we walked onto the ship I said
"Tech, fly us out of here!" Wrecker was standing at the hatch firing at the troopers as he yelled
"Go, go, go!" I helped Hunter sit down and I took his helmet off as he said
"He… He took Omega" With the hatch now closed, Wrecker took his helmet off and said
"Who? Crosshair?" Hunter groaned in pain before saying
"No. A bounty hunter. We have to find her"