Under a Blood Red Sky: The Bad Batch, Part 2

=0=On a ship, fleeing

"He's awake," Wrecker said as he stared grimly at Crosshair.

"He is," Omega said softly.

The sound of their voices seemed distant, then it wasn't. The effect of the stunning he received had worn off almost all at once as an image of Hunter's grim face staring at him crowded the cobwebs away. They'd dusted the entire room, shooting every android that came for them and they did it together. The small moment of exhilaration that had filled him had turned to dust when he turned to stare at the business end of Hunter's gun.

It was so tense he felt his chest catch as they stared across a chasm that seemed at that moment insurmountable, Hunter and him. The moment of oneness, of the five of them doing what they did to the level of perfection that they always laid on the table evaporated into a knowing that they would have to shoot it out.

Hunter did, faster than him with his directly pointed gun. His sniper rifle was an extension of his soul but it was what it was and he lost. He stared at Hunter as he felt oblivion boil up, then fell to the floor heavily. Only now was he aware of being elsewhere, somewhere familiar.

The Havoc Marauder. He was home.

"Crosshair, wake up," he heard Wrecker say.

Laying on his back on the rack that was his once in happier times, he stared at the familiar ceiling above him. A scratch in the primer was still there, one he put there with his knife in a moment of boredom as they once traversed a long stretch of empty space. He rolled his head to stare at the big mech, one he had missed more than he could articulate.

They were polar opposites and always were but they were brothers, perhaps in their own way deeper and more clear minded than most of the clones they grew up with. Loyalty was the single most important feature of their condition, all of the clones, and to not show it was to lose the respect of clone soldiers faster than any other thing you ever could do. Disloyalty was anathema to everything that they felt, did or were, all clones, all generations, everywhere.

Wrecker had been stronger and bigger than anyone he'd know growing up and when things got fragged up he was always there to help. They were a unit, the five of them, a five headed boy almost and it had gotten them through some very hard times. They didn't look like the other kids. They were different, more individualized and contrarian than clones typically displayed and such they were bullied like no one ever was. Day in and day out, the differences that made them unique were attacked by their fellow brothers, the 'regs' without mercy.

It shaped the mind when there was no one to assist in making the endless smart ass remarks, punches and fights end. They had each other and it honed their behavior, values and sense of unity to a fine edge. No matter what the rest of the situation was like, they could count on each other to the bitter end.

Bitter, indeed.

"Leave me alone, Wrecker," he said in his familiar soft spoken voice.

Hunter who was sitting nearby before the navigation and tactical station glanced at Wrecker, then nodded very slightly.

Wrecker sat back to stare at the lean lanky figure of a mech he missed and wanted back since the beginning. He didn't know how to approach this familiar stranger but he knew they had to settle this. It had to happen soon.

"Do you need anything, Crosshair?" Omega asked as she walked to the rack and placed her small hands on the edge of it.

Crosshair rolled his head over to look at her with his cold appearing brown eyes. "Take off the shackles."

She stared at him with sympathy. "I can't do that. Can I get you something to eat?"

Crosshair stared at her, this small compelling figure. A female clone had been a big surprise to him and her awkward attempts to meet and be a part of them had been unprecedented. No one in his entire life wanted to be with him in any fashion but his brothers. No one had ever made an attempt to know him in any manner. The void had been filled completely by them, the four of them. Even if sometimes they clashed, there was never a moment when he didn't and couldn't count on everyone of them.

Until now.

"No, thank you," Crosshair said coldly. He looked back upward at the ceiling, staring at the dark corners of the familiar space that was once his.

"I want to thank you."

He glanced at her, at her sweet hopeful kindly face and large eyes. "Why? What for?"

"I got to use your comm device," she said holding her arm up to show him. "It was yours and I got to use it. It helped me a lot. If you need it back I can give it to you."

He stared at her, oddly comforted by her presence. She was an enigma to him, a familiar but utterly foreign personality. She could make him feel better just by touching him on the shoulder. When she did in the jail, he felt himself relax without thinking about it. It felt good for the moment it lasted, then hell came and he was taken away. He glanced at Hunter who was staring at him with his dark eyes. "She can keep it. I do believe she belongs here. Apparently, me not so much."

It was deeply silent in the room as the sludgy energy of unspoken words and years of brotherhood brought low filled the space.

Echo stared at the reflection in the window as they flew through superluminal space. He wasn't as close to Crosshair as the others but he knew something about brotherhood. He'd been as close to his own as anyone of them could be. Given that he was a traditional minded soldier, one who strove to be the best and to understand every particle of what their profession demanded, he still had friends among the brotherhood that haunted him to this day.

He loved Droidbait, Fives, Cutup and Heavy. They were brothers to the core. Rex was his friend, deeply loved and respected. He knew about loss and he knew about the burdens of being cohesive when everyone was different. He knew that reconciling this would be a bitch. He glanced at Tech who was flying while he co-piloted.

Tech stared at the field ahead, tweaking their journey as he took them ever again out of danger. He was an extraordinary pilot, a very understated and calm figure who had surprises every time he turned around. He was the least obvious in his feelings among them about the enigma laying on the rack in the sleeping area. It was harder to tell what Tech thought given his quiet demeanor. But now and again, a furtive and anxious glance at the reflection in the forward view port or a grip of a fist to relieve tension gave him away.

"Sit up, Crosshair," Hunter said quietly.

"And if I don't?" Crosshair replied equally quietly. He turned his head to stare at Hunter with his intensely cold eyes.

"Its up to you," Hunter replied. "We need to talk and now is as good as any."

Crosshair stared at him, then with infinite care slowly unwound to sit on the bunk, his long legs crossed and his hands manacled at the wrist and chained to the bunk lay in his lap. He stared at Hunter, appraising him for a moment. "Does that make you happy?"

"No," Hunter said. "Nothing about this makes me happy."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to live with it," Crosshair replied.

Wrecker reached out to pull Omega back to stand beside him. He stared at Crosshair trying to figure out how to bridge the gap that they all felt. It was fucking awkward, the moment and he didn't know what to do.

"Are you hungry, Wrecker? I can get you something. I can get all of you something to eat," she said as she glanced around the room.

They stared at her, the little intensely sweet girl who had come to them accidentally and was now as much a part of their family as if she were the actual daughter of any of them.

Tech glanced back, mulling as he did something she'd said to him that had stuck in his mind. "Omega."

She glanced at him. "Tech?" she asked hopefully. Somehow, she wanted to bridge the silence, to bring them together again.

"You said something in Nala Se's lab, something that I'm trying to understand," he said.

A cloud passed over her hopeful face, then was gone. Stepping closer to the brother she liked to talk to about anything and everything, she nodded. "You mean the lab and what happened to us there."

"What lab?" Hunter asked as he glanced at her.

Omega looked at him, this man who seemed a father to her. "Nala Se's private lab. I was created there."

They stared at her, a sunny little girl who played with dolls talking to her about her own creation. It was even for them creepy and hard to hear.

She turned back to Tech. "I was created there in that lab. I was there when you were enhanced. You were tiny, just babies but Nala was working on enhancement techniques that Lama Su ordered. You were there and then returned to the other clones."

It was leaden in the room, then Hunter shifted uneasily in his chair. "Then the enhancements we have, the differences and all the rest were intentional. They were created by her at his orders. They weren't defects then. Why?"

She considered that. "They were working on a plan for making a new kind of clone, one that was more skilled more swiftly. One that could fight longer and better than the others. I was small. I watched you in the tubes. I followed you because you were the only ones that I'd been allowed to know. Nala Se didn't let me mingle." She turned to Tech. "That's why I wanted to be with you in the cafeteria and to go with you. You're my brothers, the only ones I ever got to know even a little. I had to go with you."

It was silent a moment, then Tech glanced back at her. "Did she ever tell you why us and what they were really aiming for, Omega?"

Omega glanced at him. "She had conversations with others, mostly Lama Su and I only got bits and pieces but they sort of told me what they were trying to do. They feared the Empire and wanted to have their own force to protect them, even if it was small. They had some worries that what happened would. They were going to leave and set up elsewhere and they needed an army to assist and protect them.

"You were an experimental unit from the start and that's why they pulled you in so much to test you, both in the arena and the labs. You were prototypes of a new clone army."

"So we were made to be better than the regs," Crosshair said. "Makes sense to me."

"But for what purpose? If they wanted their own army then they knew that something was coming that would be terrible for Kamino and perhaps everyone else as well," Tech said. "They must have known that the Empire was going to destroy anyone in their path that didn't fall in line. Order 66 was the first round of what they feared must be coming." He glanced at Omega. "There were a lot of gestation tubes in that lab, Omega. Did you ever see or hear of anyone else having the same experiments done on them as us?"

Omega thought for a moment. Then she nodded her head. "Nala Se worked on this project all along. She would take me there to watch what she did. There were a lot of clones, Tech. A lot of them."

The ship flew silently onward as that realization sunk slowly in.

=0=TBC 08-08-2021