A/N: I have returned with another chapter! I'm already a good way ahead in writing this story, so I estimate there will be about three more chapters. Maybe. Again, I am bad at estimations, and they usually turn out longer than expected. Anyways, back to the story! I hope you enjoy!
Sabine took a deep breath and kept a steady pace behind Hunter.
As she, Ezra, and Hunter had taken the route back to the hanger, the increase in patrols had become apparent. Entire squads of stormtroopers marched down the halls in rigid formation, and it was becoming harder and harder for her to keep a level head. If they were busted, the chances of making it out would be beyond slim.
Finally, Hunter led them around another corner and to a pair of doors. With the tap of a button on the control panel, the doors hissed open, and Sabine's eyes widened. The place was swarming with Imperials, even more so than when they had first snuck in. Several troop carriers had landed, with what must have been two whole platoons of stormtroopers making their way down the ramps.
"Come on," Hunter said in a low voice over their comms. No one could hear them, so it didn't matter how loudly they spoke, but Sabine still understood. It felt like the entire room had its eyes on them.
Walk in like you belong, Sabine reminded herself, trying to keep herself steady.
Hunter led them further into the hanger, coming to a stop beside a tall stack of crates. If Hunter was right, then Tech and Crosshair were in here somewhere. If not… well, Sabine decided to wait to find out, first.
From their spot next to the crates, Sabine scanned the hanger as covertly as she could. Then, she paused. Craning her neck to see past one of the squads, she noticed a group of troopers who hadn't come from the carriers.
"Hey," she whispered, nudging Ezra to her right. Before Ezra could ask, Sabine jerked her head towards the group.
"That's them," Ezra said, with certainty. He, in turn, gestured to Hunter, who sucked in a sharp breath, before leading the way once more. The group skirted around the platoons of stormtroopers disembarking from the ship, until the guards on the other side were visible. And there, stripped of their armor and restrained, were Tech and Crosshair.
Crosshair was slumped against a crate, head lolling forward. It was difficult to tell from this distance whether he was actually unconscious, but Sabine knew it was likely. On the other hand, Tech was alert if a little bruised. His yellow-tinted goggles were missing from his face, but he still squinted around him as if searching for something.
From beside Sabine, Hunter let out a low, furious growl as he, too, spotted his brothers. Without a word to either her or Ezra, he walked purposefully towards the cluster of stormtroopers.
As they approached the guards, doubt settled in the pit of Sabine's stomach. Sure, they had a plan, but what if they were found out anyways? All it took was one wrong move on their part, and they were done for.
But before Hunter could reach the others, one of the guard's hands went up to the side of his helmet, and his head bobbed as though in a silent conversation. With a final nod, the guard turned to the others. Two grabbed ahold of Crosshair by the arms, while another jerked Tech to his feet. Tech sent a resentful glare at the guard nearest to him but was only rewarded with a sharp jab in the back with a blaster.
Hunter cursed and Sabine had to quicken her pace as he made a beeline for the guards, now leading Tech and dragging a limp Crosshair to one of the transports. The Empire was going to transfer the other two out of the facility.
"Hey! What are you three doing?"
Sabine and Ezra stopped abruptly behind Hunter as another stormtrooper stepped into their path. This was it. Sabine searched desperately for an excuse that they could use to bluff their way out of this. Her gaze darted away from the stormtrooper to look behind him, where Tech and Crosshair were now being directed up the ramp of the transport. They were running out of time.
"We were assigned to guard that transport for the prisoner transfer," Hunter replied evenly.
The stormtrooper tilted his head, considering Hunter's response. "What's your identification number?"
"Tk-8226."
Again, the stormtrooper stared at Hunter critically, before saying, "you're not assigned to that squad. I'd better run that by the higher ups—"
But before he could finish, an alarm began to blare. All activity in the hanger came to a halt.
Then, the first blast rocked the facility. Stormtroopers and workers alike began rushing around the hanger, panicked and disorganized as the ground shook again, this time more intense. In the chaos, no one noticed when Hunter lunged forwards and struck the stormtrooper over the head with the butt of his blaster and quickly gestured to Ezra and Sabine to help him haul the unconscious guard behind a nearby stack of crates.
"What's going on?!" Ezra yelped, just before another explosion almost knocked him off his feet. With catlike reflexes, Sabine stopped his fall.
"Like I would know!" she replied, catching herself on one of the crates, looking upwards at the ceiling, which was just beginning to show narrow cracks spreading across it like spiderwebs.
Hunter adjusted his armor again. "I don't know either, but it did the trick. Let's grab Crosshair and Tech and get out of here."
The group dashed out from behind the crates and Sabine's eyes locked onto the transport. The ramp was already rising.
"Go!" Hunter ordered, and the three sprinted out of cover.
Feet pounding the ground, Sabine hardly had any time to consider what they would do once they got onboard. In a few seconds, the entryway would be completely closed—
A wave of invisible energy catapulted her forward, and she didn't even have time to react before she was sliding down the ramp and into the transport, Hunter beside her. Hardly a split second later, Ezra landed with a thud to her left, and the door hissed shut behind them.
Nine blank visors tuned to stare at them.
"How's it going?" Ezra said casually and ignited his lightsaber.
Blasterfire filled the hold, and Sabine ducked, rushed forward, aimed a low kick that knocked down one of the troopers. Twisting, she took out another with her blaster. By the time she stood up, the hold was cleared. Immediately, Sabine hurried into the cockpit to find Hunter already dragging an unconscious co-pilot out of the co-pilot's seat and onto the floor with the pilot.
Sabine jerked in surprise as someone bumped into her shoulder and ran into the cockpit.
"Tech!" Hunter exclaimed as he straightened, grabbed ahold of his brother, and pulled him into an embrace so that their foreheads were touching. "You had me worried."
"Your concern was not warranted. I would have found a way out," Tech replied evenly, although he didn't pull away from the embrace. "Eventually."
"Uh huh," Hunter replied skeptically.
Another explosion shook the ship and Ezra stumbled up to the cockpit, Tech's amber-tinted goggles in hand. "As nice as this is, can we save the reunions for later and get out of here?"
"I believe that would be very wise," Tech agreed, breaking out of Hunter's embrace, and holding out his wrists, held together with a pair of restraining cuffs. Using a tool from his belt, Hunter easily unlocked the cuffs and stepped aside. With his restraints now removed, Tech accepted his goggles from Ezra's outstretched hand, and took to the pilot's seat, fingers already gliding expertly over the control panel to bring the ship online.
Hunter backed into the hold. "I'm going to check up on Crosshair, see if he's woken up yet. Sabine, can you take co-pilot?"
"On it," Sabine replied, and slid into the co-pilot's seat. No one stopped them as the ship revved to life and began to lift out of the hanger. Sabine caught a glimpse of a Tie-fighter through the viewport. Another distant explosion.
What's going on? Sabine asked herself again, but as before, the answer refused to reveal itself. Did Hera have anything to do with this? It certainly seemed like the only possibility, but the Ghost didn't have enough firepower to take out the facility on its own, much less get past the arrestor cruiser out in orbit. And Hera had agreed to wait for the others' signal from the quarry to bail them out. So who was attacking the facility?
Tech guided the transport out of the hanger, revealing the dark, clouded sky, and Sabine gasped. Darting across the sky and through the clouds of smog were dozens of fighters, X-wings, Y-wings, and a myriad of ragtag ships. It was the rebel fleet.
"It appears reinforcements have arrived," Tech observed, as though commenting on the weather, and Sabine let a short laugh.
The clouds of pollution obscured the rest of the sky, so Sabine could only assume the rest of the fleet had engaged the arrestor cruiser and were waiting for them. They would be sure to not keep them waiting for too long.
As Tech piloted the ship away from the refinery, Sabine reached into a pocket on her belt for the detonator. It was a shame they were facing away from the facility. She would have loved to watch the explosion.
"Time to blow this thing," she said. Then, with a satisfying click, Sabine activated the detonator. Only a split-second later, a massive blast rang out, so intense that it sent a shiver through their ship. Sabine grinned. Even if the mission hadn't gone completely as planned, their luck had held out.
Removing her helmet with a satisfied sigh, Sabine lifted her commlink to her mouth. Hera would have no idea that they had found another way out of the facility.
"Spectre-1, this is Spectre-5, do you copy?"
Almost immediately, Hera responded, "I copy, Spectre-5. I'm on my way."
"No need," Sabine responded, shaking her head. "We found our own way out."
"Your own way?"
Sabine chuckled at Hera's skepticism. "We might have stolen a troop transport. Don't worry, everything went according to plan," she added quickly. Mostly.
"Alright," Hera said. "We have to get out of here fast. Imperials have sent reinforcements, and they're overwhelming the fleet."
Sabine didn't bother asking about that part, as long as it gave them a distraction to escape. With a final, "got it," Sabine deactivated her comm.
Then, the first Tie-fighter fell in on their left.
"Transport D-2706, you are not on course to the cruiser," the voice of the pilot said over the comms.
Sabine sucked in a breath as she looked to her left, where Tech was staring with evident surprise at the fighter.
"Acknowledged," he responded, the tension in his voice concealed expertly. There was a long, tense moment before the pilot spoke over the comms again.
"Readjust your course."
As Tech gently adjusted the transport's heading, Hunter and Crosshair, who was now free of his restraints and blinking blearily, entered the cockpit from behind them.
"What's going on?" Hunter demanded in a tight voice, eyeing the Tie-fighter which had still not left their side even after Tech had changed their course.
"I am not certain," Tech replied tersely, agitated by the fact.
But before Hunter could even open his mouth to respond, the comm crackled to life again.
"Transport, this airspace isn't secure. The admiral has assigned us as your escort."
Us? Sabine mouthed. And then the other two Ties fell into formation behind them and on their right.
Oh no.
"Copy that," Tech confirmed over the communications; however his expression was anything but pleased. As soon as the connection was cut off, they all turned simultaneously to Hunter, who had removed his helmet and was already considering their next move. The transport was unarmed, they had just called off Hera's assistance, and they were being routed straight to the arrestor cruiser, so once they were out of the atmosphere there would be no escape.
"We could contact Hera again and request backup—"
Tech cut in before Hunter could finish the thought, "Reinforcements would not arrive here in time. We will be exiting the atmosphere shortly."
"So we're just going fly right to our deaths?" Crosshair retorted sardonically.
"Well, seeing as we are not on an armed vessel, we cannot simply—"
Sabine stopped listening to the arguing clones and turned in her seat. On the other side of the doorway to the cockpit, Ezra stood, silently staring at his feet, although his expression was anything but blank. It appeared as though he were listening for something.
"Hey!" Sabine interrupted the debate that had slowly risen in volume and seemingly turned into a shouting match between the three clones. She put a finger up to her lips as they all turned to her, and then twisted around to peer at Ezra, who was still focused intently on the deck. For a long moment, the only sounds were the fighters locked in combat outside of the ship, and the low hum of the transport's engines.
"What is it?" Sabine finally broke the silence that had descended on the cockpit.
Ezra's eyes, wide with surprise, shot up to meet hers. "She's out there, Sabine. Omega's out there on the cruiser. I can feel her."
As soon as the words left Ezra's mouth, Sabine knew the Bad Batch's minds were made up. Honestly, she would have been shocked if they weren't.
"Then we stay on course," Hunter said decidedly.
Across their path, an X-wing hurtled towards the ground. They would find and rescue Omega, Sabine was sure of that. She knew that nothing would be able to stop Hunter and his squad once they got inside. She just hoped that the rebel fleet could hold out for that long.
A/N: The next few chapters are going to focus on Hunter a lot, so you all can stay tuned for a lot of angst! But also fun. So until next time!
- Bubblez