Chapter 14

A/N: HELLO my fellow fans! I watched the eighth episode of the Bad Batch recently, and now I'm dead. Am I the only one? No? Okay then.

Ezra's gaze swept over the massive crater dug deep into the planet's surface with a mixture of awe and dread. Even without the pair of macrobinoculars Kanan was currently using, Ezra could just make out the tiny figures of people, like miniscule insects, dwarfed by the sheer size of the quarry, bustling about at their work. From there, the steady pattern of mining explosives was only a distant thunder, echoing around the deep chasm, but the ground beneath him rumbled ominously.

Large worker droids trundled back and forth, carrying metal bins filled to the brim with dark, shimmery hunks of rock and emptying them into an even larger container, which was then loaded onto a transport. Ezra could only assume the transports were equipped with some sort of heavy-duty repulsor-lift, because although they sagged under the weight of the heavy metals, none of them had broken down yet.

Those transports were their main objective.

"Okay, my turn."

Ezra barely had time to turn around before there was a hand on his face, shoving him away from the ledge. Sabine smirked at him from behind her helmet; at least, he could feel her smug satisfaction as she pushed him away.

"Force. This place really is huge," she gasped, scanning the massive, staired pit in front of them. Dust kicked up from explosives and the droids' treads gave it a shrouded, foreboding appearance. It was as though the bottom just receded into nothing.

"Yeah, it'll be great when we get to blow it up!" Wrecker laughed, earning him noisy shushes from the rest of his squad. "Sorry."

Hunter let out a sigh and shook his head, shifting uncomfortably in his stolen stormtrooper armor. Despite his better judgement, he had joined the team shutting down the facility. With his injury, he figured, it would be the part of the mission where he would be the least of a hindrance. That still didn't mean that he had to like it. Especially since it meant he would be away from two of his squad.

A part of him doubted whether the Jedi could keep Wrecker in line. He had faith in Echo, but even the older clone couldn't always keep their easily excitable brother under control. He had already talked to all of them, warning them to obey orders, just like the old days. Crosshair had sent him a look that could have killed a bantha ten times over.

"The days of the Republic are over," he had said with the shadow of a sneer. "Isn't that why we're here in the first place?"

"I'm not debating this, Cross."

"And what about the Jedi? Do you really think we can trust him?"

At this, Hunter had finally lost what little patience he still had with his brother. "I already talked to him about it. And yes, you were right. It is him."

The rest of the Batch had stared at him, wide-eyed as they pieced it together. Crosshair only scrutinized him further, as though trying to decipher where he was taking this.

"He recognized us from the start," Hunter admitted.

Wrecker had taken to scratching his head in confusion. "Wait, he's that kid from Kaller? I thought you said—?"

"He lied," Crosshair stated plainly, gaze still fixed on Hunter.

"Of course, he did." Tech joined in on the conversation, adjusting his goggles with a sniff. "You were being rather… well…"

The squad stared at him, and Tech fidgeted under their stares, hands unconsciously searching his belt for something to hold onto. They all knew where this was going, and conversations about that never turned out well.

"Unreasonable," Tech finished warily, and for once, their brother seemed to be regretting his rather blunt mannerisms.

Jaw clenched, Crosshair made no comment, but looked away into the corner. Silence swallowed the group. For a moment, Hunter regretted saying anything about the entire ordeal. He should have known that his squadmates would react like this, after everything that they had been through, especially Crosshair. Really, he should have done a lot of things. It was his job to keep his squad together, and here he was doing a really terrific job at doing just the opposite.

"I think we should trust him."

As all eyes landed on Echo, Echo crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, the Jedi probably doesn't trust us completely. I wouldn't either—" He sent a significant look to Crosshair, who quickly averted his eyes once more. "—but we have a job to do. Omega's counting on us to finish her mission, and I'm certainly not going to be the one to let her down."

When Echo finished his little speech, he had given a nearly imperceptible nod to Hunter, covered Wrecker's resounding cheer. Hunter replied with a weary, yet thankful, smile. Always count on Echo to come to the rescue.

After that conversation, he had hoped they would drop the entire Kaller topic, but Hunter could still feel Crosshair's penetrating gaze on the back of his neck from time to time. He doubted his brother would be letting go of it any time soon, if ever, but at least it had been temporarily resolved. They would have to be at the top of their game if they were to make it out of this mission in one piece.

"Let's get going," Hunter said, "It's only a matter of time before the Empire notices a certain transport didn't check in on touchdown."

The two kids, Ezra and Sabine, jumped down from the ledge where they had been stationed. Sabine handed off a pair of binocs to Echo, who gave Hunter a firm nod. He would make sure Wrecker stayed out of trouble.

Minutely, Hunter allowed himself to relax.

"Hey, Hunter."

Kanan also climbed down from the ledge and approached Hunter. The Jedi gave him a grim smile as he offered his hand. "Force be with you."

Hunter grabbed Kanan's arm in a steady grasp. If he were perfectly honest, he had no idea what the proper response to the Jedi saying was. He'd heard it enough times in his life, and still had no clue. In the end, he decided it didn't really matter.

"See you on the other side," he replied, tightening his grip once before releasing the other man's arm. If everything went right, they'd be back on the Ghost in no time.

But nothing ever went right. Not for them.

As Hunter gestured to the rest of his team, Tech, Ezra, Sabine, and Crosshair followed him loosely away from the edge of the mine. Again, Hunter found himself wishing he didn't have to leave any of his squad with the other team. It wasn't that he didn't trust Echo, he had trusted the man with his life more times than he could count, but that didn't stop his gut from twisting itself into a knot of anxiety.

It's for the mission, you're not just leaving them behind, he reasoned with himself. They'll be fine on their own. No matter how many times the reasonable voice repeated that, his stubborn protectiveness was always stronger. He was their sergeant. Their ori'vod. It was his job to protect them, and he couldn't do anything if he wasn't there to do it. Maybe he was losing his touch.

Maybe he had left someone behind one too many times.

Hunter shook his head. That train of thought was too dangerous to be travelling down now, before a mission. He needed to be focused, so he found himself thinking about what was at stake.

Omega had told them of her mission, if only the very major details. Several years ago, she had said she was going to enlist in the Imperial Navy, work her way up in the ranks, and bide her time until she saw a good opportunity to strike. Of course, Hunter and his brothers had been mostly opposed to the idea. It meant almost total radio-silence on her part, so if anything were to happen to her, if the Empire ever found her out, none of the Batch would know.

It was just their luck that she had been raised and taught by some of the most stubborn, unpredictable, and relentless soldiers out there, and she was bent on the idea. Echo, reasonable as always, had been the first one to give in. As much as they had hated the idea, one by one, they had all caved.

But Hunter didn't regret it. Sure, he was more stressed than he had been in years, probably since they had first welcomed Omega into their broken, little family, but Omega had done what she set out to do. If they managed to pull this off, all of Omega's work just might make the difference she had always wanted to make. And he would tell her just how proud he was.

Hunter led the group down one side a steep, soot-blackened slope, white plastoid armor clicking, as he approached a slightly less blackened path carved into the ground. When they reached the bottom of the slope, the ground dropped away into a shallow gully with a road snaking through it. Peering down the gully, Hunter put up a fist and brought them to an abrupt halt. He strained to hear a faint humming over the sounds resonating from the quarry. Hunter gestured with his free hand to duck, and they all flattened themselves to the ground.

"What is it?" Ezra whispered, looking around them at the barren wastes.

Ignoring the padawan's question, Hunter listened as the humming grew louder, approaching at a rapid pace. Then, the transport sped around the corner and into his line of sight, pulling along several of the massive crates of metal.

"Tech!" Hunter pointed at the oncoming transport, "Give us the signal."

"Wait, what signal?" Ezra asked anxiously.

"4.23 seconds," Tech reported to Hunter.

"What signal?!"

"Now!"

"Jump!" Hunter ordered and without hesitation, the five of them hurled themselves off the outcropping and towards the transport waiting below. The wind sucked at the seal of Hunter's helmet, and he tucked his injured arm close to his body just before landing with a grunt in the container. He winced as his arm jolted hard against his chest and chunks of unrefined chrysithium jabbed into his back, but as he pushed himself to his feet, nothing else appeared to be injured.

"A bit more of a warning would've been nice," Crosshair growled, brushing black dust and debris off his shoulders.

"I thought it was fairly obvious what we were doing," Tech, who was just picking himself out of the rubble, replied. Hunter hid a laugh as the sniper groaned and glared at Tech.

Ezra, followed shortly after by Sabine, carefully picked his way across the pile of metals.

"So, we're in a giant bin." he said, watching the barren landscape fly past, "what now?"

Hunter scanned the skyline until he caught sight of the towering pillars of smoke far off in the distance. "We ride this transport all the way to the factory, then sneak off and walk in like we belong."

"So, easy, right?" Sabine said, lifting up the visor of her scout trooper armor to look at the smokestack floating just above the horizon line.

"We'll see about that."

Sabine dared to peek out of the container they had been riding in to get another look at the factory. She choked on the acrid fumes as they hit her in full force, causing tears to blur her vision. The sky was even grayer than before, polluted by the amount of fumes the factory was pumping into the air, but she could still see just how huge it was though the smog. When it had first appeared on the horizon, Sabine almost mistook it for a mountain, albeit a very strange one, from its sheer size. Now, it was looming over them, spewing smoke from its smokestacks like some giant monster.

Behind her, Hunter coughed. She could only imagine how badly this reeked for him, with his heightened senses. The helmets protected you from most toxins and gases, but anything non-lethal only stunk up the tight, hot space even more. Usually, helmets didn't bother her—she always wore hers on their missions—but the stench, combined with the hot stuffiness and narrow range of sight, made it an unpleasant situation to say the least.

Pulling herself back into the crate, she plopped down in a space next to Ezra. With a bit of surprise, she realized the two of them hadn't had very much of a chance to talk alone since… well, for quite a while.

"So…" Sabine glanced around them. Hunter and Tech were on the other side of the crate, a fair distance away, with the size of it, and in the opposite corner was Crosshair, peeking around the transport to look at the factory. No one appeared to be listening, nor even care. "This is fun," she said, digging behind her for a chuck of rock that was jabbing the small of her back.

"Yeah, we get to ride in a container of rocks. Choking on fumes," Ezra replied with a laugh. "Lots of fun."

"We even get to wear these buckets," Sabine added, rapping on her stolen scout trooper helmet. It had taken quite a lot of restraint not to paint the disguise however she liked, but she figured that would kind of defeat the purpose. At least she would have something entertaining to do after the mission. "So much fun."

Sabine looked over to Ezra, but her smile faltered at his drooping figure. With a family of Mandalorians, she had grown used to reading body language when she couldn't see their expressions. That, and her and Ezra had been living in close quarters with each other for a while now. Brushing that thought aside, Sabine grabbed his shoulder and shook it gently.

"Hey. What's on your mind?" She asked.

Ezra shifted under her grip, but slowly answered, "I'm just worried about the others. And us. And Omega. There's so much that could go wrong, and… I don't know. I'm just worried, is all."

"You're right."

Ezra jerked to look at her, and Sabine could easily picture his confused expression as he stammered, "W—what?"

"I said, you're right. There's a ton of stuff that could go wrong. One mistake could bring this whole plan down."

Ezra snorted. "That's real reassuring."

Sabine shook her head, "I'm not trying to reassure you."

Again, Ezra stared at her, this time more skeptical than confused. Sabine continued, "Our lives are a bunch of plans gone wrong, but isn't that how things always are, and always have been? Most of us wouldn't even be here if it weren't for one bad mistake.

Our lives, the rebellion, the entire galaxy is constantly depending on us in one situation or another. The way I see it, we do what needs to be done. We're only human. We make mistakes." Sabine squeezed Ezra's tightly. "But we can't let that get the better of us."

For a long moment, the only sounds in the air were the voices of their teammates, the low humming of the transport's engines, and the mechanical noises of the factory a few klicks ahead of them.

But before Ezra could respond, Hunter and Tech returned from their conversation, Crosshair following them moments later. Encouragingly, Sabine smiled, patted Ezra's back and stood up. Pins and needles flooded her legs from the uncomfortable position as Sabine hoped to the Force Ezra listened to what she had said. She was sure about one thing, and that was that the stakes were high. They all needed to be at their very best for this mission. One mistake, and it was over.

"Listen up, everyone," Hunter said, scanning their helmeted faces, "as soon as the transport enters the facility, we jump off and act like we're meant to be there. If everything goes as planned, we'll be in and out of there in no time. Understood?"

Sabine replied with a yes simultaneously with the other, all except for Crosshair, who stood, silently appraising the sergeant.

"Understood, Crosshair?"

"Affirmative," the sniper finally growled in response, and Hunter turned back to the group.

"Good. Now we wait."

As the minutes ticked by, the shadow of the facility crept over them, darkening the ashy landscape even further, until finally they approached the end of the line. Sabine dared to peek out from the crate again, but quickly ducked back inside when she spotted the familiar flash of dull plastoid armor. The transport slowed to a stop in front of a massive loading bay, and Sabine felt her pulse quicken.

It would be game over if the guards checked their crate. But what were the chances of that? There was at least half a dozen of them, and the Empire never suspected anyone would be brave enough, or stupid enough, to sneak into their bases in such a simple manner.

Or did they?

As the clacking of armor came into earshot, Hunter put out one hand. Wait. Sabine held her breath when voices spoke just to the side of the crate and to their left. All it would take to betray them was to climb up to the rim and peek inside.

Beside her, Tech shifted onto one leg in a crouching position and— a loose chunk of rock clattered loudly to the bottom of the crate, the final crunch as loud as a crash of thunder in her ears. Sabine stiffened when the voices on the other side of the tall edge went quiet.

Silent as a loth-cat, her hand crept down to her blaster pistol at her side. Beside her, she could feel the others doing the same, but she kept her eyes trained intently on the rim of the crate.

"TK-162, reporting in. Transport D-322 cleared to go."

Sabine slumped back against the side of the crate, but still didn't make a noise until the engines had started once more, and she could be sure any other noises would be covered by the transport. As the massive loading-bay doors moved past them, she couldn't help but send an exasperated look to Tech with the rest of the team.

Tech coughed under the gaze of the others, staring guiltily at his feet. "My apologies."

"You should be glad we're still here to apologize to," Crosshair said to his brother, and Hunter let out a half exasperated, half anxious laugh.

Sabine shivered. That was more than just "a close one."

The transport came to an abrupt halt, and Hunter immediately signaled them to their feet. Warily peering over the edge, the sergeant paused before giving a quick thumbs-up and disappearing over the edge. Crosshair jumped out after him, and Ezra and Tech after that.

Finally, Sabine gripped the edge of the crate. Ezra beckoned her with a hand from behind the stack of crates him and the rest of the team were hiding behind. Sabine gave a nod in return and was preparing to jump when a pair of stormtroopers rounded the corner. With a gasp, Sabine ducked back into the crate just before they looked her way.

"I thought I heard something over here," one of the troopers said.

"Come on, you're probably just overreacting again."

"No, no, I swear, there's something over here!"

Sabine dared a peek out of the crate only to watch the pair slowly approaching the others' hiding place.

"That's exactly what you said last time!" The second stormtrooper stopped just in front of the crates.

Don't turn around, don't turn around, don't turn around, Sabine pleaded as she looked around for any kind of distraction. All she had were those blasted rocks—!

Of course!

Sabine grabbed one of the smaller chunks, aimed, and chucked it as hard as she could past the crate. The unrefined metal hit the floor with a loud clatter, and the two troopers whirled around.

"Did you hear that?" The first stormtrooper asked.

"Yeah, I heard it."

"See, I told you!"

"Don't rub it in…" The second groaned, and the pair turned around, before walking away and out of sight.

Sabine sagged once more before deftly hopping over the rim and landing gracefully on the ground once more. She ran, ducked over, to the other's hiding place.

"That was a close one," Ezra exhaled, as he reached out an arm to receive her behind the crates.

"Yeah." Sabine looked over her shoulder at where the Stormtroopers had left. "Too close."

Too many close ones, she thought as they crept away and further into the facility.

A/N: Whew! Finished! I spent so long working on this chapter. It went through several rewrites and other major changes before I decided it was good enough to release into the wild, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Again, I love hearing from you, and I'm always looking for ways to improve. Thank you so much for your support so far! Hopefully, I'll be updating again soon!