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Hunter rapped on the door of the fresher, frowning. “Crosshair? You in there?” There was no response, and Hunter turned moving away back to the cockpit.
“He’s not answering.” He told Tech and Wrecker, who were gathered in the cockpit, and both looked up worriedly. “The sonic’s running, and I can’t hear anything over it.” He sighed, turning away. “He’s been in there for eight hours.” He started to pace, rubbing his hands nervously.
“At what point do we plan on breaking into the fresher?” Tech asked steadily, the red light on his googles flashing as he regarded Hunter with seemingly impenetrable calm, though the way his fingers drummed on the table said otherwise.
“Soon.” Hunter sighed. “Echo’s asleep still, and I cannot sense Crosshair anywhere, so he must be in the fresher. And if we break in, we have to replace the door and that’s a pain.” He rubbed his forehead.
Wrecker looked back over at Tech as his brother spoke. “Crosshair has a tendency to wander off, and we are on the ground. He could have wandered off the ship.”
“But the pair rule -” Wrecker asked, but Tech cut him off.
“When has Crosshair ever followed the pair rule?” He asked dryly.
“He does, sometimes, with Echo.” Hunter said quietly. “But someone’d have heard the ship door open.” Tech nodded, but no one said anything and Hunter sighed.
“We’ll give him another ten minutes.” Hunter decided, stopping his pacing to drop into his chair. “Crosshair’s been off lately, I think we’ve all noticed it, but confronting him never ends well.” He massaged his head tiredly. “I asked Echo to ask Crosshair about it, as he’d probably respond best to Echo, but Echo refused.”
“Okay.” Wrecker sighed, looking down, fiddling with his datapad. Tech watched him as he shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “It - it feels wrong to leave him like that.” He admitted. “If he’s upset we should help him.”
Hunter shrugged, feigning nonchalance, though he actually agreed with Wrecker. “We’ve left him there for eight hours. Ten minutes makes no difference.” Tech nodded absentmindedly, already working on his current project.
Wrecker sighed again, but didn’t protest, walking out of the cockpit. Hunter tapped his foot, then stood, resuming his pacing.
---
Wrecker didn’t like their choice to leave Crosshair in there any longer, but Hunter had said they should do it, and Wrecker always listened to their older brother.
But Crosshair’d been in a bad mood for days, and when they’d finally decided to try to ask him to see if he would accept their help, Tech had told them that he’d locked himself in the fresher for hours. They hadn’t been on a mission for three days, so he most likely wasn’t hurt and hiding it like he did often. But other than that, Wrecker didn’t know what was wrong with Crosshair.
He’d been like that a few weeks ago, but according to Hunter, Echo had helped him there, and suddenly Crosshair stuck close to Echo – not talking, Crosshair never talked like Tech did, but just sitting together, chilling. And Echo didn’t seem to mind it at all. Something had changed, and Wrecker didn’t know what it was.
He sat on his bunk, glancing at the sleeping Echo – Tech had ordered him to bed as he was still recovering from the blood loss when he’d gotten hurt a few days ago by some shrapnel and lost a lot of blood. Crosshair had stayed with him for most of that time, lying on his bunk, but today he’d just disappeared.
He’d been quiet in the morning, and Wrecker hadn’t thought anything of it, and he and Echo had been ignoring each other, though Wrecker’d never heard them arguing. They hadn’t argued ever, as far as Wrecker knew, but that could just be because they argued quietly and no one’d heard them. Well, probably Hunter had, but no one else had heard them.
Wrecker had just picked up his datapad when Hunter stepped in. “Can you help me break down the door?” Wrecker nodded, standing solemly. For once, when asked to break something, he didn’t get excited, he just walked quietly out, following Tech, who was trying something with a screwdriver on the hinges, and looked up as they walked in.
“So, I just break the door down?” Wrecker asked, and Hunter nodded.
“Yeah, just about.” Wrecker stepped forward, and knocked, gently at first, then louder. “Crosshair, if you’re in there, unlock the door.” There was no response, and Wrecker took hold of the handle, and twisted it. It was well and truly locked.
The door opened inward, so Wrecker started by putting pressure on the door, first gently, the force increasing until something popped. Wrecker pushed harder, and with a few more pops, the door suddenly gave with a bang, Wrecker nearly falling over but catching himself and the door on the doorframe. He moved the door out of the way as Hunter glanced in.
The fresher was empty. The sonic was on, but there was no one there. Hunter cursed, turning away. “He’s not there.”
Echo stumbled into the room, rubbing his eyes. “What’s happening? Why did you take the door off the hinges?” He blinked, surprised as the other three stood there.
Tech ducked into the fresher to turn the sonic off as Hunter turned to face Echo. “Crosshair’s missing.” He said flatly, as Wrecker leant the door against the wall.
“What?” Echo blinked, surprised. “How’d you lose him?”
“He’s not on the ship as far as we can tell.” Tech spoke as he walked back out. “Do you know why he’s been so – off, to borrow Hunter’s words?”
Echo looked away. “I have a guess.” He said quietly, before looking up. “Have you tried him on comms?” Hunter looked up, about to say that they hadn’t, when Tech nodded.
“I’ve been trying all day.” He admitted, shifting his feet as the others looked at him in surprise.
“Where does his tracker say?” Wrecker asked Tech.
“He - he doesn’t have one. He removed his, somehow, from both his armor and himself, and he refuses to have one. We can only track him if he turns on his beacon.”
“You can’t remotely do that, can you?” Hunter asked, and Tech shook his head.
“He forced me to disable that when he realized I could do that.”
“So, we’re finding him the old-fashioned way then.” Echo sighed. “Who wants to stay at the ship and coordinate everyone? I say it should be Tech.”
“You are injured, if you have forgotten.” Tech curtly reminded Echo. “You should not be hiking through this area in your condition. You can stay here, we will go look for him.” Echo nodded, sighing, turning back to the bunkroom as the other three headed for the cockpit to get their weapons.
There was a loud creak as Tech lowered the ramp, and Echo was still getting dressed in his armor as he heard three sets of armored boots tramping down the ramp. With a sigh, he picked up his comm, sending a message to Crosshair. We’re looking for you. Come back to the ship.
---
Tech rarely found himself worried for his older brother, but right now, he found himself feeling incredibly worried for Crosshair. The planet they were on, Mizuke VII, was a rainforest planet, with various types of animals and plants that were dangerous to humans, and Crosshair had no clue which was which. He hadn’t taken his sniper rifle or blaster, and though he was in his armor, he stood no change if the native species of Mizukian lion tried to attack him. Let alone all the snakes which according to all the reports were exceedingly dangerous.
Tech had all his weapons, and a life sign detector active, scanning for anything bigger thana bug. He flinched violently as a bird flew from a tree over head, squawking loudly, and Tech stared at it. If Crosshair wasn’t lost somewhere on his planet, barely able to defend himself, he’d definitely want to spend a long time here documenting all the species. Apparently there were over a hundred different types of bird, and over seventy types of venomous snakes!
Hunter and Wrecker would be able to take care of themselves. Hunter had his senses to sense danger, also he was proficient in hand to hand, he’d be fine. He also had considerable common sense and would steer away from snakes whether they were poisonous or not. Wrecker would likely be less affected due to his considerable body mass, and he would likely avoid snakes too, though he was known to like spiders... That might not be good, actually.
Tech quickly sent both Tech and Wrecker a message to avoid any snakes, spiders or large animals, and while he was at it, he commed Crosshair again, getting no response.
---
Hunter had tried to track Crosshair’s trail, but he’d lost it straight out of the Marauder. There were so many new, different animal trails set since, and it’d been hours since Crosshair had left. He followed one track he hoped led to Crosshair, glancing nervously at the trees around him. He could feel life literally everywhere about him, and it was disorienting.
He jumped as he heard something big rustling in the bushes behind him, drawing his blaster.
---
Echo looked up as he heard boots quietly heading up the ramp, and limped out of the cockpit only to see Crosshair, glaring at him. “What do you want?” He hissed, and Echo paused.
“They’re looking for you, Crosshair.” Echo told him. “We were worried.” He looked at the ground. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” He said, staring at the ground.
Crosshair blinked, but kept glaring at Echo. “I can’t just forgive you because you said sorry.” He also found himself looking away.
Echo sighed. “I’ll tell them to come back. They’re going to be pretty mad, and I’m sorry.” He raised the comm he held to his mouth, and flicked it on. “Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Crosshair is back.” He muted himself as Crosshair turned away, heading to the bunkroom. Echo frowned, noting that Crosshair was limping.
“Are you hurt?” He frowned at Crosshair, who only glared back.
“Kriff off.” He hissed, and Echo frowned, moving closer.
“Crosshair, I know you are angry at me for what I said, but if you’re hurt you must tell me. Tech said there are many venomous animals and if you’ve gotten bitten you could die.” Echo said worriedly, and Crosshair sighed.
“I sprained my ankle in that karking undergrowth. Happy?”
“As a tooka.” Echo stepped back, and Crosshair walked into the bunkroom.
---
“He’s here? Where is he?” Was the first thing Wrecker demanded as he ran up the ramp. Echo, leaning against the wall, smirked, pointing to the bunkroom, and he smiled as he heard Crosshair’s muffled curses when Wrecker inevitably hugged him. Tech was next, and he insisted on scanning Crosshair, who allowed him, though he refused painkillers for his ankle.
But when Hunter came aboard, the mood changed. Hunter headed straight for the bunk room, focusing in on Crosshair, who sat on his bunk, on his datapad, with Tech and Wrecker nearby. Echo limped after Hunter, closing the ramp and choosing to stand in the doorway as Hunter faced Crosshair.
“Crosshair. Never do that again, understood?” Crosshair blinked.
“Do what again,” he rasped.
“Trick us like that. I thought you were in the fresher for hours because I couldn’t sense you.” Hunter scolded, though everyone heard the catch in Hunter’s voice as he blinked away tears. “We were worried.”
“Why did you do that?” Wrecker asked, staring at Crosshair from his seat on the floor. Crosshair looked away awkwardly.
“Do what?” He asked sulkily, knowing perfectly well what Wrecker was saying. Wrecker waited, but Crosshair said nothing.
“We argued.” Echo spoke up. “I said something I shouldn’t have.” He grimaced awkwardly.
“What was it?” Tech asked, instantly interested.
“None of your kriffing business.” Crosshair hissed, glaring. Tech looked away, abashed.
“Okay. Well, if we’re done, I’m going back to my work.” He stood, walking away, and after a second more of staring at Crosshair, Hunter followed. Wrecker sighed, standing and walked out also, leaving Crosshair and Echo.
“Thank you.” Echo said softly, and Crosshair looked up at him, frowning.
“For what?”
“Not telling them what I said.” Echo ducked his head, and Crosshair raised his eyebrows.
“I was never going to.” He said, firmly. “Whatever was said in our argument was between us, they don’t need to know.”
“Still, thanks.” Echo turned away, about to limp back to the cockpit, when Crosshair’s voice stopped him.
“I forgive you.”