Chapter 6 - Teth
Tech and Omega are arguing.
Again.
Crosshair walks into the Marauder just to hear her yelling something of a "Hunter would have let me help."
"Well, I am not Hunter," Tech answers, his body as tense as Crosshair has ever seen it.
"I wish Hunter was the one here," Omega throws back.
Tech looks stung. Crosshair hasn't seen such a visible flicker of hurt in his eyes that he remembers, even if his expression quickly becomes steely again. All Crosshair can do is stare at them because she just said – what –
He really wishes he hadn't walked into the middle of this conversation at all. Crosshair wants Hunter here more than anything else but that doesn't mean he – He could never pick which brother he'd rather have here when all three of the ones he grew up with mean everything to him. And he knows Omega didn't really mean what she said; she's just angry, but –
"If Hunter were here, he would not let you put the rest of our brothers in danger," Tech snaps back.
Omega glares at him. "More of our brothers are trapped on Tantiss and you don't even care!"
"They are not my responsibility."
Crosshair is not expecting Omega to outright throw something but she does, throwing a mug at him.
Tech ducks, barely on time to avoid getting it broken on his face, likely only from instinct and years of training.
It hits the wall and shatters with a crash that Crosshair thinks is the sound of something breaking irreparably.
Omega's eyes are wet when she spins on her heel and runs from the ship.
Wrecker looks at him wide-eyed before following.
Tech stumbles back from her, from where they were, looking at his datapad like it's a foreign, potentially lethal object. He doesn't just lose himself again like he used to.
Crosshair has never felt so overwhelmingly out of place since he came back. He's angry on Omega's behalf, but she – what –
He should say something but he doesn't even know what. He hasn't had a clue how to handle the amount of fighting they've all been doing all this time and he has no idea what to say to Tech after Omega said something like that.
He shifts forward finally, a little awkwardly. "Tech," he starts.
Tech sits on the edge of one of the chairs, staring at it mindlessly, like he can only half see it. It's dark, but Crosshair can still see well enough in the dark to see the tears in his brother's eyes. They're wet.
Tech doesn't cry. He can count on one hand the number of times he's seen Tech actually break down, and there hasn't been one in years, not even after Hunter. If he had one, he hid it well, because Crosshair had no idea, and neither Wrecker nor Omega mentioned it.
They both made each other cry this time.
Somehow.
Crosshair approaches him slowly, sitting in one of the seats next to him. "She doesn't mean that," Crosshair tells him, half helplessly, wishing he had something more than that to offer. He really doesn't. His mind is basically blank.
"If Hunter were here instead," Tech replies finally, "He would lead us as he always did. He would know what calls to make. He left the railcar to aid me. Had he not, he would be here still."
Crosshair never knew what happened. He never knew how Hunter was lost, just that it was on the mission to get the coordinates. He didn't know it was because he was trying to save Tech's life. Is that part of why Tech has been so constantly snappy with them this entire time, so unlike how he always used to be?
Crosshair can understand that so well now. Tech blames himself for Hunter's loss on some level, very unfairly even if he can see why. "That's not your fault," Crosshair points out. He has no idea how to say this, how to help. He's never had to have this kind of conversation with Tech before. "Hunter made his choice. You know this is what he would want."
"That does not mean it was the right one. Or that it is what Omega needs."
He still doesn't know how to handle what Omega wants to do. He can't really understand it. "Hunter wanted us to be safe," Crosshair says, "He would still want that if he were... here." It's always gutting to have to talk about him in past-tense because he's the past. It's started to feel real now but he doesn't think he'll ever truly accept it.
"We will still need him to lead us in the future, but he is not here," Tech replies stubbornly.
It's the blunt truth and a sharp reminder that Tech is taking this just as badly as all of them.
Crosshair wishes there was something he could say to him but there's not. Tech's not wrong but that doesn't mean it would have hurt any of them less for Tech to be lost instead of Hunter.
What would Hunter do if Omega was demanding this? The truth is, Crosshair doesn't even know because he never saw much of their dynamic. But he can't imagine Hunter would walk into the kind of danger Tantiss is, and...
The more he's thinking about what Omega wants, the more he has to question if this is truly a desire to help, or if it's a desire to make the Empire hurt for what they did. That, he can understand even if his desire for that is far surpassed by his desire to keep the rest of his siblings alive.
"I don't know that going to Tantiss is what Omega needs," Crosshair supplies finally. He's seen that the wild grief in her eyes, the way it's burning to anger to the point she said something like that to Tech in the first place. "She wants to hurt the Empire."
Tech sighs heavily. "I am aware," he concedes, "I am concerned on how her desire for aiding others has slowly transformed into something of vengeance. It is the same way with Echo."
"I'm glad you're here," Crosshair mutters, unable to look at him. He wishes they hadn't lost anyone, but he can't say he would rather lose Tech than Hunter. You can't pick siblings like that.
Hunter's death gutted him, but he can accept that's what his eldest brother would have wanted. He lived for protecting them. If he failed, if it had been Tech, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself, and it would have destroyed him.
Not that this isn't destroying Tech, anyway.
Tech is still crying. It's so jarring. He feels cold inside. Empty.
Crosshair shifts forward, awkwardly pulling him into a hug. Tech hugs him back, pressing them together, and for a long while, they just cling to each other in silence.
There's really nothing to say.
They still have each other. That's all they have now.
**w**
Something about this morning feels different. Crosshair doesn't know what, but he knows from the moment he rolls off his rack, he knows this is going to be another one of those days. Tech is already up and sipping caf with his touch-me-and-I'll-kill-you face. Wrecker's out, Omega's nowhere to be seen, the sky is cloudy, and...
Basically, he knows this is going to be one of those days that is awful through and through until he finally crawls into bed, twelve hours past dead-on-his feet, especially with a certain skull embroidered in a red cloth staring accusingly up at him.
Well, and.
The already bad day is instantly made worse when Echo calls – his last was a few days ago, and ended with a smashed mug, courtesy of Omega.
"Something came up," Echo says, "I don't want to call you away but Rex is asking me to bring you to our base. He needs to talk to you."
Crosshair doesn't like the sound of that. He can't think of very many things that could be this urgent. Unless –
"About what?" Tech demands.
"He didn't explain the details. And it's... something we need to deal with in person."
He does not want to do this. He knows this is gonna lead him back to the Empire, somehow or other. He was definitely right that today was going to be a very bad day.
Crosshair looks to Tech uncertainly.
"There will be no danger?" Tech asks.
"There shouldn't be. Our base has been secure from the Empire all this time," Echo replies.
"We will be there." He disconnects the call and Crosshair deflates. He doesn't want to do this but it might turn out to be nothing. Not likely, though. But really if Omega heard about this call, she'd be demanding to go and there's no point arguing about it. And really, Rex and Echo wouldn't be asking them to come if it wasn't important.
**w**
Crosshair can say with certainty that he almost hates wearing this armor again. It's his, and it fits, better than it did a couple of months ago, but he doesn't deserve to wear it. It reminds him of times long gone, of when Hunter was still...
Howzer is as cranky as ever. Wrecker just stares at them both, wide-eyed.
Tech is visibly about to assault someone.
Whether verbally or physically remains to be seen.
Rex has to show them something, apparently, and Crosshair hates where this is going.
Echo gives Omega a crossbow he made for her, and they head inside together.
There's a lot more regs moving around here than Crosshair expected.
"You have far more support here than before," Tech observes.
"We need all the help we can get," Rex replies, "Once we find the coordinates of Tantiss base, we have to hit it hard if we're gonna pull our brothers out of there." Even with all the regs here, Crosshair doesn't believe they could do it. Tantiss is too well-guarded. Even a stealth mission would be hard. It's infinitely better guarded than Skako Minor, and they had a Jedi there.
Crosshair isn't fully confident they could pull this off even with a Jedi's help.
Howzer shoves past between Tech and Crosshair, and his older brother glares at the reg severely enough Crosshair's almost certain someone's about to start throwing hands.
...
Not yet.
Not that he's complaining – he wants to get back to Pabu, and Howzer has a good reason to hate him.
"I have questions about the facility but that's not why I sent for you," Rex goes on. He picks up a disk from the holotable behind it, tossing it to Tech. "We recovered a target list from an Imperial operative. And Omega's on it." Wrecker's eyes widen with worry, and Omega shifts a little.
"Not a surprise," Crosshair points out. They already knew the Empire wanted something with Omega. There's a reason they brought her to Tantiss in the first place. "She escaped Imperial custody."
"So did you," Howzer interrupts, "But you're not on the list."
He's planning to do this again? "Guess I'm not as valuable to them."
"Or you're feeding them information," he retorts, gesturing at him.
"Crosshair has been through enough," Tech interrupts, glaring, "And if you do not have faith in your loyalty, perhaps we should return to our home."
Howzer scowls. "You expect us to believe he was held on Tantiss for a month, and you were able to smuggle yourself there successfully, and neither of you know how to get back there?"
"Whether you believe it or not, it's the truth," Crosshair snaps back irritably. He's starting to think the constant arguing is getting to him. He doesn't want to be here. It's not safe. Pabu is at least somewhat protected. This is an outpost. Something Tech promised him he could leave behind. The tension is familiar and grating. His hand is aching again. "But I'm not loyal to the Empire any longer."
Batcher moving around restlessly behind them is only putting Crosshair more on edge. She's probably just bored of being stuck in the facility but he's still paranoid that something is about to go wrong.
"I didn't bring you here to debate this again," Rex wisely interrupts, "Do you know why the Empire was after you before, Omega?"
"To force Nala Se to cooperate and conduct certain experiments."
"Which were what?"
Omega hesitates. "She was working on something involving M-Count I don't know what that means but they were taking blood samples from everyone, even me." She looks away, face shadowed but it's another reminder of everything she went through on Tantiss too. Crosshair doesn't know what all happened to her but that kind of captivity will wear on anyone.
"M-Count?" Rex echoes.
"I could theorize as to what that means," Tech interrupts, "But I cannot say anything for certain."
"Yeah," Rex agrees, "I've heard it, too." He steps forward to crouch in front of Omega. "What else can you tell us?" he inquires.
They don't really have anything else to give Rex – except the way-too-many details Tech has about his entire trip the way there and back – and then one of the regs comes in saying it's time to eat, which Wrecker is much too gleeful about. Batcher, Wrecker, and Omega scramble off to eat instantly.
Crosshair just wants to get out of here but while they're here, this is one thing he should mention to them. It's... important even if he never wants to think about being strapped down in that room and electrocuted and – everything else that happened there. "Wait. There's more you should know. Not all of the clones on Tantiss are prisoners. Some are loyal to the Empire." That instantly catches Rex and Howzer's attention. "There is a division of clones trained as specialized operatives and initiated into a secret deep cover program run by Hemlock. Their identities are erased. They undergo conditioning. The few that make it through come out... different."
Different is almost an understatement for how mindless and violent they are after all that. Not that Crosshair had been there long enough to see more than one survive. CX-1 was nothing like the regs. Nothing like he ought to be.
"If the program's so secretive, how do you know about it?" Howzer demands.
"Because they tried to make me into one of them."
Tech starts slightly next to him and Crosshair can feel his eyes on him.
"Tried?" Howzer echoes.
"It... didn't work," he answers, "Being defective is... in my nature."
"That would explain the assassin re encountered on Coruscant," Tech replies, "Crosshair, why didn't you tell us this before?" He's not angry, exactly, but still reproachful enough to make him feel, well, frankly, stupid.
"I didn't feel overly enthusiastic in describing the procedure."
Tech seems to take that as an answer, at any rate, because he looks back at Rex.
"We've known they existed but never knew exactly what they were," Rex muses.
But there's something to how he says it...
"You found something more about them?" Tech guesses, eyeing him.
"We captured one. I've tried questioning him but he hasn't been very cooperative."
Crosshair freezes. He wasn't in the CX program long enough to know much about it but he knows enough. "You have one here? Alive?"
Rex nods.
"Impossible. The Empire would be on top of us already. They have ways of tracking their operatives." He knew coming here was a bad idea. He just didn't realize how bad. The Empire could literally be here any minute and –
"We scanned him. He's clear," Rex assures.
"It's not the kind of tracker your scans would pick up. Hemlock's smarter than that."
"I am certain I could locate and remove it," Tech interrupts.
Apparently, part of being a bad day means it's one of those days where Crosshair also very, very badly wants to put his older brother's head through a wall. "Good luck getting one to hold still long enough."
"Take me to the operative," Tech requests, ignoring the comment.
Rex leads them to a room deeper in the facility, and Crosshair follows reluctantly. He's not ready to have to deal with something that so personally connects him to Tantiss.
The reg, who's in binders, looks up slowly when they enter. There's something wild but calculating in his eyes as he looks between them, gaze finally locking with Crosshair's.
The CX is here and very alive and there's no way Hemlock hasn't already taken action to have him neutralized. And that means they're too late.
"We need to leave," Crosshair demands, heart rate picking up, "Now." Or it's going to be too late. If it isn't already though alarms would probably have gone off it was, but that doesn't mean that isn't about to happen. The best chance they have of survival is by evacuating before the Empire shows up. They already know about the base.
"If you want answers so badly, why aren't you asking him?" the CX scoffs, eyes narrowing on Crosshair. "Right, brother?"
Crosshair glares at him at the endearment.
"You're right about one thing," he goes on, "They are coming for all of you."
Right on cue, a distant explosion rings out.
Crosshair's heart nearly stops at the noise. He was right. They're too late. They should never have come here.
That's quickly followed by more explosions ringing out and Rex pushes a button on his wrist. "Comms are down," he reports breathlessly.
The CX chuckles, sounding deranged. Whatever Hemlock's done to them, he's completely ripped away their minds.
They all turn for the door, drawing their blasters, right as a vibroblade nearly hits Rex. They all dodge back for cover, and Crosshair glances back to CX-1 to see the blade embedded in his chest. It hit his heart. A nearly instant kill.
"We got an attacker out here!" Wrecker calls as they run out into the main room where the others had been trying to eat.
Another knife flies over their heads, barely missing again.
"How many knives does this person have?!" Wrecker yells.
"Too many!" Crosshair calls back, because he really can't help himself.
They all duck down to the floor, waiting. Everything is quiet, too quiet, but Crosshair knows the CX must be moving closer.
This one is different. He's never seen a blade-wielding CX before. This one must be someone new. Crosshair hasn't seen this proficiency with blades since Hunter. He tries not to let it get to him – he can't think of Hunter every time he sees a vibroblade.
Not when someone's trying to stab him.
"They're in the back of the room!" someone yells.
Crosshair sees him – briefly – he's in black, but his visor is red-tinted. Not the normal helmet. Or look – this one's different.
"Nemec, we need to get comms online," Rex orders.
The reg moves forwards, keeping under the side of the table for cover as he tries to get the comms back up. Crosshair barely has a moment of warning before an EMP grenade lands right next to the table, the electricity crackling through the controls and Nemec. The reg goes down, and the controls totally short circuit.
So much for getting the comms back online.
"What do we do?" Omega asks. She's not panicking, but she is scared. She's grown a lot from where she started.
Tech tosses a smoke grenade into the center of the room and the air is instantly flooded with smoke, hopefully blinding the assassin. Crosshair turns on the thermal setting of his helmet to scan the room again.
Tech pushes himself up, looking over the tops of the crates he, Crosshair, and Howzer are taking shelter behind. He pulls his visor down and scans the room. "Crosshair, to the right," he says, gesturing to where the assassin must be, though it's too dark and smoky for Crosshair to see himself.
Crosshair raises his rifle instantly though, firing in the direction Tech was pointing.
Or at least he tries too because his hand is shaking a little again and the shot goes wild. He sighs frustratedly. "I can't get him."
He yelps when Tech yanks his rifle away. "Hey!"
"If you are incapable of making the shot, I will."
Speaking of rude, but to Tech, it's just Tech. Crosshair scowls at him, anyway, but he understands they have to get out of here, and he doesn't have time to get all weapon clingy. "Do you even know how to use it?"
"Of course, I do." Tech is definitely annoyed at him now.
He fires in the general direction he told Crosshair to shoot at before,
Crosshair can't see where the assassin is but he must've ducked the same second Tech pulled the trigger because there's no noise of a body hitting the floor. It's like he could almost somehow sense his intention or - or the charge. Hunter could do that.
Stop.
The CX fires at them with a blaster now, and Tech ducks back down.
"Backup plan," Rex replies, "Into the command post. I'll cover you."
"There he is," Tech says to Rex who nods.
"Go!"
They all take off together, trying to make it across the room.
Crosshair gets another good look at the assassin as they run. He's moving closer swiftly and he can see his shadowy figure through the smoke. The way he's lifting another vibroblade is too familiar and – stop it.
He loses sight of the assassin for a moment but then something moves right behind them suddenly and then the assassin is jumping straight at Wrecker. It happens too fast for anyone to yell a warning or for Wrecker to turn fast enough to shake him off.
The vibroblade embeds in his shoulder. Wrecker whips around with a half-snarl, half-yelp of pain as he flings the assassin backwards. Crosshair lifts his rifle to fire the same moment Tech also starts shooting, but the CX is already rolling out of the way.
Wrecker twists around, ripping the vibroblade out of the wound and throwing it to the floor, panting.
"Wrecker," Crosshair calls, breathlessly. That was deep. It's not fatal but he can already see the wound starting to bleed, even in the smokiness of the room.
"'m fine," Wrecker waves it off, not that they have time to worry about anything more right now. They have to keep moving.
Rex starts shooting at the CX as they keep running and he dives for cover, somewhere out of sight. But only for a moment, because then the assassin jumps Fireball, trying to stab him. The reg shoves him off but the assassin is fast, and there's no way for Rex to shoot him without hitting Fireball at the same time.
Rex is about to run forward to jump him anyway when the assassin brings the vibroblade down faster than Fireball can block, and he stabs him through the chest. It doesn't go nearly as cleanly through his heart like with the other CX, but he's never going to survive that. The wound was too messy, too deep. Another one down.
Rex fires on the assassin, nearly taking his head off but he rolls out of the way barely in time.
Fireball tries to go for his flamethrower even though he can hardly move, but it's enough to barely turn it on. Explosives roll in right in the way of it as it starts to activate, though.
Crosshair ducks away at the blinding explosion that rips through the room. And the next thing he knows, the ceiling is raining down on them. They sprint for the back to avoid the falling debris. Rex rolls through the door last, and for a minute, they just lay there, trying to catch their breaths.
Basically everyone must be gone now, and Crosshair has no idea how things got this bad. He doesn't know how the CX was able to get through all of Rex's defenses undetected, though he shouldn't be so surprised – Hemlock did train them to be assassins. Efficient ones.
Crosshair helps pull Rex to his feet.
"What do we do now?" Wrecker queries worriedly, turning his flashlight on.
"We take the other route," Rex answers, shoving a crate off from atop a hidden exit.
Rex climbs down first, and the others follow. A ladder takes them down to a lover level, and from there, Crosshair can see many spiraling levels and windows.
"Our leech vessel is docked about ten levels down," Rex states.
"Doesn't have a hyperdrive though. We won't get far," Howzer objects.
"No, but we can use it to contact Echo," Rex replies, and they move out.
Crosshair tries his best not to obsessively wonder what happened to the CX, and how close he is on their tail. This isn't one he knows. He has no idea how soon he'll catch them, though he no doubt survived the falling debris. They're not that lucky, and they don't have much time.
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