Part 3 - Replacements
Plot: After escaping Saleucami, Omega and her brothers crash-land on a moon as they struggle to repair the Marauder.
Author's Note: This is for Febuwhump Day Twenty Five: #Alt 10 Last Man Standing.
~ Rivana Rita
"I wanted to make this a long time ago," Crosshair confesses to her, glancing up. They're in the cargo hold now, and he's... attempting to sew some very, very odd-shaped black fabric pieces together. He's been keeping them out of sight of the others, which was when Omega found him down here. "But I never had time. Hunter always knows where I am. Sometimes he comes back really late after experiments, though, so I had time to cut this out."
"Experiments?" Omega asks. She tries to sound neutral but doesn't quite think she managed it.
"Mm. All the time."
His hand nearly slips, and Omega winces. "Careful," she warns.
"Don't worry," he shrugs, "I've been stabbed with much worse than a needle." Omega has no idea if that's supposed to make her feel better or horrify her more. Definitely does the second, though. "Hunter's always last one in," he says, "Dunno what they do to him. Never talks about it."
Omega has so many questions about that offhanded comment. She doesn't think he's trying to worry her, but she's still freaking out. "Did they hurt you on Kamino?" she finally has to ask.
Crosshair's face scrunches. "They said they're doin' it to make us better."
Her gut clenches. She wants to say something, but then the lights flicker and black out.
Crosshair yelps. She's almost certain he just stabbed himself. "Better put that away," Omega says, trying to reach out to pat his shoulder and missing entirely. "I'll go tell Echo 'bout the lights." She stands, climbing up the ladder and Crosshair follows a few rungs behind. Wrecker grabs his hand, pulling him up. "Echo," Omega calls, "The lights are dipping again."
"Yeah," he grumbles up from the cockpit, "Add it to the list. The ship got hit hard when we fled Saleucami. Several systems have been glitching ever since."
Yeah, she can tell. And feels a bit called out, because she could be helping instead of talking to her brothers, which she's... basically been doing the entire time. She had to check the ration supply, too, and that's low. She'd fully restocked before they left for Onderon, even if she didn't think they'd be gone for long, just in case. After the Sieges, she'd been expecting to be gone far longer. Omega hadn't been equipped for six people though, much less someone Wrecker's size with his needs. He eats a lot. He had two whole trays at the cafeteria.
"The ship-wide diagnostic report indicated no critical systems were compromised," Tech calls from somewhere up front, and a millisecond later, there's a loud rumbling and the ship jolts so violently Omega trips into one of the seats, grabbing the back for support.
"How is getting thrown out of hyperspace not critical?" Omega half shrieks, running to the front.
"It's not affecting life support!" he protests.
Yeah, okay. Tech is officially fired from any and all further attempts at ship system status reports.
"Just get to the back and get strapped in," Omega warns, sliding into the pilot's seat and wrapping her hands over the steering wheel.
"The power capacitor's blown. We need to land immediately," Echo speaks up.
"Good thing I've had crash landings before," Omega mutters, "I know someone's who perfected the art, so I know what I'm doing. I think." She yanks on the steering control, trying to angle the ship in a direction it'll be able to skim over the surface for a while.
Her heart is hammering, and Wrecker chanting "we're gonna die" in the background is not helping.
She gasps when the Marauder crashes into the ground, skimming a long way before finally jolting to a sputtering, dying stop, but on the bright side, she's not crispy and the ship didn't crack in half.
Or... at least Omega doesn't think it did?
"Everyone okay?" she calls to the back, standing and trying to lift Gonky from where he toppled over. He's still too heavy, though.
"Yeah," Hunter yells back.
Wrecker bounds into the cockpit, picking up Gonky with enough ease that she feels downright pathetic.
"Well," Omega sighs, heading back, "We gotta find that spare capacitor."
**w**
Well, finding the capacitor in question isn't too bad. "Stay here," Omega tells the kids firmly, "Don't go outside without the masks on, obviously. Echo and I can fix this fine by ourselves – it should be fast. Don't get in trouble."
There's an adorable chorus of "yes, ma'am's" and she puts the mask on, heading outside and closing the ramp behind them. There's not too much gravity out here, but there's still enough not to outright float. There is something of an atmosphere here, though far from a breathable one.
They connect the wires together, and Echo alternates between keeping watch and helping her.
"What was that?" he asks, and Omega pauses.
"What was what?" she replies, glancing over her shoulder. It's dark, but she doesn't see anything. "Let's, uh, just get this capacitor in place, and we can get outta here." She thinks something's wrong somehow. She used to think it was a gut-feeling, but Anakin explained to her that even non-Force-sensitives can feel and use the Force. It's just a question of how in tuned with it they are, he'd said, and he thought she might be Force-sensitive, too. Apparently, that's not something they just know.
"Omega, you better take a look at this," Echo calls, a distance farther up in the hull. Omega follows his gaze, her flashlight landing on a series of scratches on the hull.
She shivers. "I don't think we're here alone. We better get going."
Except, very predictably, they don't make it past reentering the ship before the lights all go out again.
Wrecker and Crosshair, up front together, shriek in unison.
Omega's heart skips a beat, and she instantly sprints up to the front, half expecting to see them about to get eaten or something. Everything's perfectly normal though, except that they're both on their feet now.
"What's wrong?" Echo asks, skidding into the cockpit behind her.
"There was this huge monster!" Wrecker screeches.
"It ran off with the capacitor," Crosshair adds, looking visibly shaken up.
Echo jabs a button on the controls, and the screen lights up. "They're right," he says, "The capacitor's gone."
Ah, great. "What kind of creature would want a capacitor?" Omega asks, a bit rhetorically, because it's not like anyone would know. "It'd shock itself to death."
"It may be an Ordo Moon Dragon," Tech supplies, looking up from his datapad – he never puts the thing down. It's kind of ridiculous. "They feed on raw energy. It may have been drawn to the capacitor's electric charge."
Omega sighs. "At any rate, that was the only one we have, so we have to get it before that thing eats it. Could be anywhere by now."
"I can find it," Hunter offers.
Omega freezes, looking down at him. "You sure, kid?"
"I can track it," Hunter replies, "That's what I do. I can follow its electric field."
She doesn't like this. At all. "Echo, can you get the other systems back online?" she requests, "We only have one spare mask, and Hunter's gonna hafta come with me."
Echo nods to her.
"Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair," Omega adds pointedly, "Stay inside."
"What else would we do?" Crosshair mutters grumpily, "I'm not going to see how long I could hold my breath under death risk again."
Wrecker inhales very, very deeply.
"No!" Crosshair yells at him, "We are not doing this again!"
"There is no point," Tech says loudly, launching into some detailed explanation about how humans can't hold their breath more than a minute without going unconscious because everyone very badly needed to know that for some reason.
Omega pats Hunter's shoulder. "C'mon," she says, handing him the mask she stole from Wrecker where he was playing with it earlier. "Let's get going. Just stay close."
The sky outside is dark. Really dark.
She gives Hunter a spare flashlight, too, and the two of them move out, away from the Marauder. Omega can't shake the worry nipping at her, though. That thing is out here, and it could still hurt them. It could still hurt Hunter, and it's clearly fast and sneaky if it was able to crawl around on the Marauder without her or Echo noticing. No doubt that's the thing that left the scratch marks there.
She's admittedly mad that it scratched up her ship, too.
Hunter crouches in the rocks, the wind howling past them. It's slightly sandy, but mostly, it's just the wind. Apparently, there's a bit more to the atmosphere than she thought.
"What are you doing?" Omega asks finally as he crouches again, digging his fingers into the sandy, rocky ground. His expression is tightly concentrated, but she doesn't really... get how it works. "How do you do that?"
"I dunno," Hunter admits, standing again, "Tech says something in my brain's different. No one really understands it, but I can feel anything electric. Especially if it's big. Even people, though that's harder."
Huh. She didn't know that was possible. Her brothers are mutants, though. They're gonna have weird abilities. She couldn't be sure, but there's a high chance the clones – even her – aren't fully human, anyway. Considering Crosshair and a number of the regs have gray hair, well, that's not a natural human color. Probably, some sort of recessive trait from a near-human species from generations ago. Not like it matters.
She wants to ask more, but she needs to focus, Omega has no idea where the creature is, or if it's already eaten their only way off this rock. They need to hurry.
It's not that far off, all things considered, when Omega finally spots the flashing lights up ahead.
"Stay here," she cautions before Hunter can move forwards himself. The capacitor's sitting amidst a rock pile, but there's a high chance the dragon thing is still nearby. Could be in hiding again, about to pounce, and she's not letting him get jumped by a wild animal a second time.
Hunter steps back, waiting behind the rock and Omega moves forwards, crouching to pick it up.
And that, of course, is when she hears the growl.
Omega freezes instinctively, as she's been taught when dealing with animals. They'll wait to jump if they don't see an instant threat, though she turns her flashlight off and slowly reaches for her blaster instead.
It happens so fast.
The thing jumps down, and she jerks her blaster upwards, firing. The dragon is too fast, snatching the capacitor in its jaws and swinging a limb at her chest. Omega ducks backward to avoid getting her face ripped off, and instead, it bats her mask off ingloriously, clanking onto the rocks.
Omega gasps instinctively, except she can't breathe, and there's no air here.
She stumbles, throat and lungs burning and demanding air. Hunter is calling her from far away, but she can't hear and falls to her knees. Her eyes are burning now, and she reaches out, flailing for her mask because she needs that, but her vision is going dark at the edges.
She's not gonna die here, and this is ridiculous.
The ground doesn't feel like anything anymore and Omega thinks she's falling, but actually, she has no idea. Everything is... dark.
She's not gonna die here, come on –
**w**
Hunter shoves the mask back on her face and waits, panting and watching until he hears her breathing.
That was – that was close.
Omega will be fine now, but the creature ran off with the capacitor, and they're stuck, and he doesn't have time to wait for someone else to get here.
"Omega?" he calls, shaking her shoulder, but she's out cold.
So... the mission falls to him now? That's it, isn't it? He didn't quite expect their in-action time to be quite this eventful, or soon, but here they are. He borrows Omega's blaster, because well – obviously, he'll need that, and picks up his flashlight.
He doesn't hear any other movement, but the capacitor's charge is pulsing nearby. He can feel it down in the hole the thing went into.
It nearly killed Omega, so maybe he should be a little worried, but he's... not? Not exactly. Okay, maybe a little bit, but it doesn't matter.
Hunter drops himself down the hole, landing in a small tunnel down below.
He's never been on a mission alone before. Well, he's not really alone, but he also – is? In a way? And it's slightly unnerving. His brothers aren't here to help if something goes wrong, and they're always supposed to do everything together. That's just what they do.
Doesn't get that choice, though.
It's not hard to find. The charge is strong, and his head throbs dully from the sensory overload, but he pushes on, crawling forwards and picking it up.
A quiet snarl behind him makes Hunter turn back. The dragon's there, and well – maybe he should've brought his knife with him again? It'd be an ideal thing to use against that. It was a mess though, and Omega put it back in the Marauder somewhere herself.
...
He has a blaster, though.
It growls loudly, turning its head away from the light, though it doesn't try to attack him. That's weird. It reminds him a bit of Crosshair. Maybe the light hurts it? Hunter shifts backwards, setting the flashlight down and picking up the blaster again. He's holding the capacitor awkwardly in his other hand, so he can't carry all three.
The dragon lunges forwards unexpectedly, and Hunter jumps backwards instinctively. It's going for the flashlight though, chomping on it.
Um. Okay?
He's not complaining.
Hunter scoots back from it, turning and crawling back out.
Omega's voice calling his name echoes in from a distance away.
"Coming!" he yells back.
She reaches down to pick him up once he makes it to the top, lowering him to the ground. Which is weird, too – Wrecker is the only person who ever picks him up, and that's just annoying. This wasn't. Hunter has never had... anyone to hold him like that. It feels weird, but he doesn't mind.
He thinks he likes it, actually.
"You okay?" she asks.
"Yeah," he answers instantly, nodding, "And I got the capacitor. Sorry 'bout the flashlight."
"That's the last of our worries," Omega promises, "Let's just get outta here."
**w**
Omega can't help breathing a sigh of relief when they finally, finally make it safely back inside, and she gets the engine fired up so they can get out of this nightmare. She hates this place. Through and through. And she doesn't hate things easily.
She can't count very many things in the galaxy she does hate, but these dragon things are definitely one of them.
And nearly suffocating, thank you, long-tailed creature. Humans need to breathe, even if you don't.
"So," she says, once they're off, it finally dawning on her that – well, Crosshair's missing. "Now that that's over, where's Crosshair?"
"He went into the cargo hold again," Tech answers. He sounds grumpy about that for some reason.
Oh. The tooka doll again, isn't it?
"What're ya doin' down there?" Wrecker asks.
"Crosshair wanted a look around," Omega replies. The rest he can tell them himself – he said he didn't want them to know.
Crosshair comes up a few minutes later, awkwardly holding the doll in one arm. "Here," he grumbles, flushing a little. "Made her for you."
Wrecker gasps, snatching it like it's the most important thing in the world, and to him it probably is. "You made it for... me?" he asks, like it's the first time someone ever did that to him, and Omega doesn't want to say that it probably is, but... they did say they don't have friends.
"Yeah," Crosshair mutters, stepping back. He's definitely feeling awkward about it. Omega just finds it adorable. "Thought we could have something of ours now."
"Well, now that we're not on Kamino anymore," Hunter ventures. He looks up at Omega, eyes bright and hopeful. "We can... have things now."
Omega had felt the same when she first left – the freedom was overwhelming, even if she didn't understand most things in the galaxy. Still doesn't know that she does.
Wrecker steps forwards, scooping Crosshair up into a hug, ignoring his shriek.
Omega can't help laughing. They look so – light. Cheerful. Free. She wishes she had someone like that when she was young, someone she could've grown up beside and played with and felt safe with. It makes her heart ache a little – Echo was the first brother she was close with, and she wasn't that little anymore when they met.
"Put me down!" Crosshair shrieks, "That's why I made this for you! So you'd stop trynna break my ribs all the time!"
Wrecker shifts his grip on him a little, and Crosshair grumbles some more before relaxing, pressing his face into Wrecker's shoulder.
Omega remembers her own first free moment vividly. She'd been with Anakin when it finally sunk in, after he tried explaining to her so long how she didn't have anything to worry about anymore. That she was a soldier, and she might be considered property, but she was free. She'd been so happy, but she hadn't really felt free. Her brothers were still gone, and that's what had mattered most.
"You're free now," she tells them, repeating – more or less – the same words Anakin said to her so long ago. "You don't have orders to follow. Or people to be afraid of. You can make your own choices now. Have what you want. And – what do you want?"
She never asked them.
Never thought about it as much as she should have.
"I don't know," Hunter replies with a shrug. He looks confused, looking to his brothers, like they could have an answer to that.
Wrecker lets go of Crosshair finally, keeping an arm looped over his shoulders. Crosshair looks way more comfortable with it than he's pretending to be. "Thank you," Wrecker says.
"Is it done?" Hunter asks, shuffling towards them.
"Thought you'd want something to work with," Crosshair mutters.
"She's perfect," Wrecker insists, hugging the wholly black doll.
"She?" Crosshair asks dubiously.
"She," Wrecker repeats, nodding.
"We need to refuel," Echo interrupts quietly, approaching Omega, "And restock."
"We'll have to land on a nearby planet, then," Omega agrees.
Crosshair looks up at her with a somewhat shy smile, and she pats his shoulder before moving to the front. They... need to get going. Fuel won't come from nowhere.
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