The shuttle jerked as it dropped from hyperspace and Hunter slammed into the opposite side of the bulkhead hitting his ear. He bit back an oath.

"Hang on to something," Rafa ordered from the pilot seat.

"That warning would have been more useful two minutes ago," Hunter protested, stumbling to the front and strapping himself in beside her.

She threw him an irritated look. "Two minutes ago, there was no reason to warn you about anything," she said as if explaining to a child.

Hunter sighed and shook his head. She was still mad at him about keeping her in the dark about the mission on Artria. He kept his mouth shut and read the displays.

They'd lost power to the engine. That last shot they took after taking off must have damaged something essential. The fall out of hyperspace dropped them somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Well, it was the middle of somewhere, just not anywhere he recognized. He pulled up the star chart.

"Can we stay afloat?" he asked her.

"If I flap my arms really fast," she mumbled. "Hang on to something."

"Why?"

"Because we came out too close to that moon and it's pulling us in," she clarified, giving him a slanted look.

Hunter watched her profile as she struggled with the controls. She'd been nothing but thorny with him through this whole mission. She hadn't teased him once. He should have felt relieved to be spared the indignity. He wondered again what made him agree to this mission. A bit of maneuvering and arm twisting from Echo, of all people, who was in high form for strategy once again.

He huffed a breath and tightened his straps, turning back to the controls. He was not as worried about the actual crashing. Between himself and Rafa piloting, the shuttle had enough juice to land without losing its structural integrity. He hoped.

Two other things worried him. One was the database report of what Rafa had called "that moon", which he tried to speed-read through as the cabin shook through the upper atmosphere, and two, their already damaged communications array, shot by blaster fire as they were finishing up their mission. It made them a helpless needle in a haystack. Or a small shuttle with no capability to signal for help, in the vast sprawl of the galaxy. He'd have words with Echo if they survived this. When, he corrected himself.

"Don't land us in anything that looks like water," he told Rafa, his eyes taking in the last of the report, as they descended through the yellow mass of clouds.

"Why? Don't fancy a swim?" she asked flippantly, her fingers white-knuckled on the controls.

"Not in that, I don't," he replied, pointing down to the pockmarked landscape appearing below them. "Acid lakes."

If it weren't for their possible impending death by explosion or acid burns, he would have enjoyed the beauty of this landscape, the multitude of lakes of turquoise steaming acid, with their bright orange, green and blue hued rims. A lethal, striking place.

"Great!" Rafa said, meaning, of course, nothing of the sort. She flipped several switches in quick succession, expertly re-routing power from the shield to their shuttle's limping engine, now that the air friction was not likely to light them on fire anymore. "There isn't much else here to land on."

Hunter could see what she meant. The landscape that stretched out to the horizon was honeycombed with lakes, the chalk-white land bridges between them too narrow for a shuttle to perch on.

"Keep us in the air, Rafa, until there's something we can land on," he said, unstrapping and heading to the back where he could take a look at the damage on the engine.

"I guess I'd better start flapping my arms," she said under her breath. He heard her even over the hum and whine of the engine. He heard everything she muttered to herself, thanks to his genetic tinkering. He wondered if she knew that.

She looked over her shoulder at him as he removed the outside panel and fanned away the smoke. "How bad?"

"Not good," he replied, after an initial assessment. He swore under his breath.

"Not reassuring."

"I wish Tech was here," Hunter whispered. His eyes scanned the circuitry and instantly pinpointed the visible damage. The why and the how to fix it escaped him though. Hunter rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"Rafa, swap," he called out.

He made his way to the front and took over the controls, while she shimmied to the back. He heard her swear, loud and detailed. A moment later she was back at the front beside him.

"I wish Trace was here," she admitted. "Engine circuitry is not my forte."

"What is your forte?" he asked, trying to distract them both from the unsolvable problem at hand.

To his surprise, she huffed disparagingly. "Making bad choices," she finally said. Her shoulders slumped.

He took his eyes off the controls and turned to her. They couldn't afford despondency now.

"Rafa. We'll make it," he said with certainly that he didn't have. "I need your top game right now."

She ran a hand over her face. "What exactly is my top game, Hunter?"

"Annoyed at me. Confident. Efficient. Teasing."

"You're laying it on a bit thick. I thought you hated my teasing."

He was quiet a while, scanning the horizon, deciding which way lay their best, and frankly, only chance. He could feel her eyes on him. He resisted the urge to rub his hand over the back of his neck.

"I don't."

"These are distraction tactics," she told him. "To keep me from thinking of how hopeless our situation is."

"Is it working?" He decided she didn't need any coddling.

She stared at him a while longer, then swivelled in her chair and pulled up the land scanner on the display.

"Maybe," she admitted. "You're heading West. Why's that?"

"Mountains," Hunter said with a mental sigh of relief at her change of tone. "If we can get there, we might have a chance."

"I don't see any mountains on this chart."

He gave her a side glance and a brief smile. "They're there, Rafa. This is my top game. Trust me."

"Bold words, smart guy."

"There you are!" he said to her with an appreciative nod. "Welcome back!"

"Whatever."

...

AN: I started this a while back - ok, a LONG while back - after The Bad Batch Season 1 ended, as a sequel to my other Bad Batch story, Hammer & Anvil. It's not really necessary to read that first, but if you like "strategizing, bantering, mishaps, and a pinch of romance" (straight out of the description), you may enjoy that one. I loved the idea of the pairing of Rafa and Hunter, but lost momentum very soon after this first chapter. I am throwing it on here now hoping for some inspiration under pressure ... or suggestions! I may or may not follow said suggestions, so please don't take offense if I go another way, but if you have an idea of how they can get out of this one, I'd love to hear it and maybe put it into action.