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It’s twilight when the Marauder settles in a spacious, open meadow, the outskirts framed by tall, shaggy trees. Omega peers out the transparisteel, wide-eyed. “What is this place?” she asks, reverently. As though it’s some mystical place instead of a tiny, uninhabited, unnamed planet forgotten in the Outer Rim.
Echo tries to imagine what it must be like to see the galaxy through her eyes, through a lens of awe and wanderlust. No matter where they go or what they’re doing, Omega is ready and eager to experience it all. She isn’t like them: war-torn and wary.
And tired. Echo is tired.
“It’s a place we can lay low for a night,” Hunter tells Omega.
Omega tries to look very serious. “Can I help you check the perimeter?” she asks, a twitch of a smile betraying her at the corner of her mouth.
Echo grins, side-eyeing the sergeant and swiveling his chair before Hunter can look to him for any sort of support.
It’s a work around Omega had quickly figured out. Hunter won’t let her explore straight off before he’s checked things out; however, he can rarely say no when she asks if she could help him check the perimeter. Two proverbial birds to her proverbial stone. It’s a loophole Fives would definitely have found and wiggled through shamelessly when he was a cadet…kriff, he probably still would as a fullgrown trooper.
“The air is breathable,” Tech contributes, helpful to Omega’s cause. “And there are no known predators.”
“But there could be predators,” Hunter points out.
“But there could not be predators,” Omega wheedles sweetly.
“She’s got you there,” Hunter,” Echo says over his shoulder.
Hunter sighs, a long, hefty thing. “Alright then. Let’s go.”
Omega makes a noise of barely contained excitement, the pattering of little boots dancing on durasteel. “Thank you, Hunter!”
“This is part of your training, kid,” Hunter tells her seriously, but none of them are falling for it. He’s as thrilled to have Omega along as she is to be taken.
“I know,” Omega chirps.
Echo waits until the duo have gone into the hold and he hears the activation of the hatch before he turns to Tech. “Do you think she’ll be surprised?” he asks.
“Oh, undoubtedly," Tech says, eyes sparkling behind the tint of his goggles.
Echo pushes himself to his feet and stretches. “We’d better wake Wrecker up before he misses it.”
Tech also stands, clipping his data pad to his utility belt. “I will leave that task in your capable hand.”
“How kind of you,” Echo grumbles.
Tech flashes him a quirk of a smile that is far too reflective of Crosshair before leaving the cockpit and the ship entirely before Echo has a chance to argue further. Wrecker always chooses to nap at the worst possible times, and Echo is convinced the man does it on purpose.
There isn’t much of a perimeter to check, but Hunter doesn’t tell Omega that. He can see and hear and sense anything that might be nearby. But there is nothing but rodents in the tall grass they wade through, the heads of the stalks coming just below Omega’s shoulders. Omega brushes her hands over them, arms outstretched to either side, not paying the least bit of attention to her surroundings, trusting Hunter implicitly.
It is as gratifying as it is intimidating. He’s had lives entrusted to him countless times as a soldier, but none felt nearly as precious. But they’d all been precious to someone, hadn’t they?
“What was that?” Omega asks suddenly, voice hushed, arms dropping back to her sides.
Hunter stops, puts his hand out and catches Omega’s shoulder. “What?”
Omega points out into the grass. “I saw a little glowing light, but then it disappeared. Look! There it is again!”
Hunter sees it this time, a soft yellow beacon. He grins. “That’s a firefly.”
“A firefly,” Omega echoes. “Is it…on fire?”
“It is not,” Tech answers before Hunter can open his mouth. “It is a chemical reaction known as bioluminescence. The insect has the ability to create its own lightsource.”
“Woah,” Omega breathes.
“Look! There’s another one! And another one! And, hey, another one!” Wrecker booms behind them.
Omega turns in a slow circle, mouth a small o of surprise.
The fireflies are everywhere now, surrounding them in the blue haze of dusk. Wrecker reaches out and catches one in cupped hands, bringing his hostage down for Omega to peek through the gap between his thumbs. “I see him! He’s blinking!” Omega giggles delightedly.
Wrecker opens his hands and lets the firefly go. Omega bounces on her toes a moment, like she might take flight herself, but she turns to look at Hunter, eyes asking the silent question, Can I go?
Hunter nods, but she doesn’t take off quite yet.
She grabs his hand, gives it a tug. “C’mon!” she says, inviting and sure.
Wrecker laughs and darts into the night.
When Omega chases after him, Hunter is right behind her, pulled along in a sea of glittering starlight.
