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The sentry’s leg swung lazily where it dangled beneath his perch in the tree as a figure watched from the bushes below. They crept as close as they dared, staying out of his line of sight. They reached into a pouch, pulling out a small droid, six legs and a long stinger unfurling as it set it on the ground. It sprung to life and skittered up the tree towards the sentry, staying on the other side of the trunk until it got close enough to skitter around, stinger ready. Just as he seemed to catch the movement out of the corner of his eye, turning to look, the stinger struck forward, catching his neck.
The sentry hissed, putting a hand to his neck and looking for whatever stung him. The figure watched as his efforts slowed, his hand falling back to his lap and head drooping. Soon, he was slumped against the tree trunk, leg hanging below him.
Now that the sentry was down, the figure crept towards the faint glow in the trees nearby. They stopped in the bushes watching two more in the small camp. One lay by a heater while the other tapped away at a device.
They shuffled around the perimeter, sticking to the bushes and shadows, getting closer to the one lying down. They reached into their pouch for another droid, setting it on the ground and watching as it skittered towards the man. He already appeared to be dozing, and with the other’s attention elsewhere, it had no issues getting close enough to sting. After a few seconds, the man’s snores filled the camp.
The other didn’t look up at the change, still focused on whatever he was doing. The figure released another droid, letting it skitter across the camp. It was careful, skittering behind the man and up the back of his armour, until it found a gap and shot its stinger forwards. The tapping on the device slowed as the man’s head drooped, similar to his friend in the tree. There was a clatter as the device was dropped, followed by his body slumping backwards to the ground.
The figure made to call back into the trees for backup when a squeak of surprise and alarm cut them off. They carefully approached, hearing the chattering of the others responding to the cry. The figure stayed quiet as the others chattered, and instead continued their careful creep. Clearly, they had missed one.
They were correct. When they neared the spot the squeak had come from, close to where the sentry in the tree slept, they spotted another man with a knife held to another small figure. While he was distracted, they reached for another droid. As they pulled it out and adjusted their angle, the man’s head snapped in their direction. He said something in a language they didn’t understand, but the threat was clear.
With the man distracted by the newcomer, the figure he originally caught carefully reached up with another droid. That one sprung directly from their hand to the man’s shoulder, stinger ready. The man swayed on the spot as it kicked in. The knife slipped from his fingers as his knees buckled beneath him and he collapsed to the ground.
Now, they called the others.
Hunter’s head felt heavy, his mind slow, as he woke with a low groan. His eyes were heavy as they blinked open, blearily taking in his surroundings. The room he was in was quiet, but he could hear muffled movement and small, rough voices throughout the rest of the building. Listening to it all around him was dizzying.
Instead, he refocused on the room itself. It was small and dimly lit, for which his eyes were thankful. He couldn’t tell what the room was for. It was undecorated and largely empty, aside from some scattered equipment and three beds.
He made the arduous effort to turn his head to the side and blinked slowly when he realised Tech was lying on one of the beds, asleep. His brow furrowed at that. Tech was supposed to be on the last watch. Hunter thought for a long moment, before he realised that he didn’t remember going to sleep. He remembered… something. Little creatures? Then something stung him. And now…
He sat up, groaning when it made his head spin. Where were they? He didn’t recognise anything he saw, heard or smelled, apart from his brothers.
He looked to his other side and found Crosshair. Unlike himself and Tech, he had a mask on his face that fogged with every breath, and his helmet sat on a small table beside him. When Hunter frowned and listened closely, it didn’t sound like his brother was having any trouble that would require an oxygen mask.
He slipped off the bed, grabbing it to steady himself as he tried to keep his feet under him. When he was steady enough, he quickly crossed the distance to Crosshair’s bed, leaning heavily on it. As he looked over him, he noticed his hand was bruised and bleeding in spots, like he’d punched something. He shook his brother’s shoulder in an effort to rouse him.
“Cross.” His tongue felt thick and heavy as he spoke. Like everything else, it was lagging behind, struggling to cooperate. He blinked away a wave of dizziness and moved the hand on Crosshair’s shoulder to the mask on his face. As soon as he removed it, he caught the faint smell of a sedative. He sighed, Crosshair wouldn’t be awake for a while.
Looking to the other side of the small room again, he made his way to Tech’s side, still using the beds to keep himself steady as his legs refused to cooperate, and kept buckling and tangling beneath him.
Unlike Crosshair, Tech stirred a little when Hunter tried to rouse him, but seemed to do his best to try to ignore him. When he didn’t go away, he blinked his eyes half open to look hazily at Hunter.
“C’mon Tech, we gotta get moving.”
Tech just stared up at him with a look of unnatural calm. “‘m sure ‘t’s fine.” He muttered, rolling over and closing his eyes. He let out a long sigh as he settled into a lazy sprawl, one hand dangling from the side of the bed.
Hunter lowered his head with another sigh of his own. It jolted back up after a sudden feeling of weightlessness and he realised he’d almost fallen asleep where he stood. After giving himself a silent scolding, he glanced around the room again, not spotting Wrecker. With that, he had a new goal.
He stumbled his way towards the door he’d spotted, which was luckily on Tech’s side of the room. When his hand finally hit the button beside it after an embarrassing number of attempts, it slid open, letting him leave. Before he did, he stood and listened, hearing nothing coming. He carefully stuck his head out, seeing nothing either, apart from a long hall with stairs leading up at the end.
He sniffed the air and listened for any sign of Wrecker, finding one almost instantly, as well as a bunch of that chattering and shuffling movement. Keeping a hand to the wall, he made his way towards it, stopping at the next door over, which sat open. He blinked and listened, confirming that yes, this was where Wrecker was. He took a moment, befuddled by the proximity and ease he’d had getting there.
He didn’t think about it too long, poking his head into the room. He quickly spotted Wrecker, swaying slightly as he sat on a bed. Half his gear was missing, in the hands of a couple of those creatures who were inspecting each piece as it was handed to them in the corner. The creatures were small, probably just around a meter tall, and they spoke in an unfamiliar language with rough voices.
Wrecker didn’t seem to mind, talking to them as if they could understand each other. His eyes were glazed and hazy, like Tech’s had been, and he simply watched as the creatures removed anything of value from him, leaving him in just his blacks.
He glanced up and blinked a few times, before his eyes focused on Hunter and he grinned. “Hey, H’nter. Check out th’ lil guys!”
A few of the creatures paused to glance over at him before simply continuing what they were doing. Why weren’t they doing anything? He’d just escaped. Instead, they kept working like he wasn’t there, even Wrecker got quicky distracted as they moved his arm to remove his pauldron. It was handed down to the two in the corner, who inspected it closely.
Hunter blinked, dragging his gaze down when he felt a small hand nudge him. He found a creature looking up at him, nudging him from where he stood in the doorway. Another joined and he found himself being guided away. He wanted to fight back and go get Wrecker, but he was too far from the wall to balance himself, and had to lean on the little guys for support as he stumbled along.
He was led back into the room he woke up in and laid down on his bed. He felt a brief pinch in his arm and listened as the creatures shuffled out of the room.
He blinked slowly at the ceiling above him, his eyelids drooping as he remembered how tired and heavy he was. He listened to his brothers’ even breathing on either side of him and felt himself relax. Once he slept, he would have more energy and be back with it enough to get them out of there.
But he didn’t sleep. Some instinct told him they needed to get out of there, as soon as possible. They hadn’t been hurt yet, but who knew what would happen if they stuck around. He dragged his heavy eyes over to Tech, who still lay in a languid sprawl on his bed. On his other side, Crosshair hadn’t moved in however long it’d been, the mask returned to his face.
Hunter’s eyes drooped. There wasn’t much he could do, and his brothers were no help. Dragging his lidded gaze around the room one final time, he spotted the helmet still sat beside Crosshair’s bed. He would have been wearing it on watch when they were taken. Hunter blinked slowly as he tried to think of why it was important to him that it was there.
His eyes snapped back open when he remembered; the helmet had comms in it. If he got to it, he could send out a call and get help.
He took a moment to ready himself, forcing his eyes open when he almost drifted off again. It was getting harder and harder to focus the longer he took. He needed to move.
He slipped off the bed, catching himself on it and narrowly avoiding crashing to the ground when his legs all but gave out under him. He got his feet under himself and took a steadying breath, focusing on the target in front of him. Shoving himself off the bed, he stumbled over on uncooperative legs, catching himself once again on Crosshair’s bed, jostling his brother with the impact.
He shook his head to clear it, blinking away the dizziness and fuzz. He focused on the helmet beside him. Putting one hand in front of the other, he slowly shuffled along the bed until he could safely reach his goal. He reached out and carefully grabbed the helmet, using all his concentration to get his fingers to listen.
As soon as he had it, he let himself slide to the ground, leaning against the bed. He slipped the helmet on. It took him a few moments to get his clumsy fingers to the right buttons on the unfamiliar helmet. When he found them, he decided against a call, doubting his ability to hold a conversation long enough, instead sending their coordinates in an SOS to whatever GAR units were nearby.
As soon as he was done, he pulled the suffocating helmet off his head, letting it tumble to the ground beside him. He looked up at his bed, so close yet so impossibly far away. Even if he trusted his mind and body to listen anymore, he was far too heavy to move. He could already feel himself drifting off now that he didn’t have a goal to achieve. He’d done all he could, he told himself as his head drooped to his chest.
He felt himself slide sideways into a sprawl on the floor as his eyes closed. He let out a long breath and finally let himself be dragged down into the nothingness.
Wolffe set his blaster to stun as the gunships approached their destination. Below them sprawled a line of stone buildings built into the side of a mountain, leading into an underground town. Their target was the one on the end. It looked the same as all the others, but it was where the SOS signal originated.
They’d received the signal and orders from General Yoda, who had been informed of the signal when they reached a passing GAR cruiser headed to a siege a few systems over. Wolffe been a little concerned when he learned the signal had come from Clone Force 99. From what he’d heard from Cody, they didn’t exactly work well with other clones, let alone ask for help.
The gunships shuddered as they landed, men spilling out as the doors slid open. Wolffe stayed close to General Plo, who lead the way. Flak rushed ahead to slice the door open as they approached. Wolffe signalled for a unit to stay with the ships while the others entered, blasters ready. Plo entered first, his men fanning out behind him.
There was no sign of anyone, until a surprised squeak sounded ahead. A small figure disappeared around the corner.
“Perhaps they know where our missing troopers are.” Plo mused as they picked up the pace to follow the figure.
They reached stairs that led deeper underground. Wolffe assigned a few troopers to stand watch at the top, and headed down with the rest. On the lower level, they encountered more of the small figures. They darted around corners and into rooms, though none tried to confront them, simply watching from their hiding places out of the way, chattering to each other. He wondered how beings like this managed to capture an elite squad of clone commandos.
Sinker signalled to stop as they approached a closed door about halfway down. Flak got this one open, and Plo and Wolffe stepped inside.
Four beds were crammed into the space with four unconscious troopers. Three were on beds while a fourth lay slumped on the ground beside the furthest one. They had been stripped of many of their more valuable pieces of equipment, left with just their armour, except for the big one who was missing a good amount of his. Wolffe supposed that would just make him easier to move.
He went to call in the medics when a blaster shot sounded. He raised his own. “What was that?”
A few troopers were scanning the hallway and looking at Boost, whose blaster was aimed at something on the ground. “Those shebese tried to get us with something. A small droid bug thing.” Boost grumbled some choice Mando’a, glaring down the hall where Wolffe assumed some of those creatures were.
“If they try anything else, stun them. Medics, get in here. And someone see if you can find these troopers’ gear.” Bruise and a young shiny medic shoved their way into the room, while the rest of the troopers outside stayed on alert, a few heading a little further down the hall. Wolffe glanced at Plo when he hummed thoughtfully. “What is it, sir?”
“I do not believe their intent is to harm us. They appear to have a very neutral disposition. They remind me of something Generals Kenobi and Skywalker told me about.”
Wolffe hummed and let his Buir contemplate that, refocusing on the medics who were now attending the unconscious troopers and getting them ready to be moved. “Sitrep, Bruise.”
Bruise glanced up from where he was scanning the one closest to the door. “They don’t seem to be injured, sir. I think the little kriffers drugged them. Something’s coming up on the scanner, some kind of sedative with maybe some minor mind altering effects, but I can’t be sure until we get some samples to the lab.”
Wolffe nodded. “But we can move them?”
Bruise glanced over to where the shiny was inspecting the one he assumed owned the helmet on the ground. “They should be ready to move in a minute.”
“Good.”
True to his word, Bruise had the four troopers scanned and moved to stretchers within the next five minutes. There was an occasional warning shot or shout as the locals got braver the longer they stuck around, but no major issues. Boost and Sinker returned from further down the hall with a couple of crates. The men paired up to carry Clone Force 99 out of there, and as soon as they were on board, the gunships took off.
Hunter woke slowly. It felt like his brain was slowly booting up, section by section. He felt the firm mattress he lay on, then smelt the antiseptic smell of a medbay. Focusing on that, he found his brothers under the antiseptic layer. Muffled voices slowly filtered into his ears. He thought he caught a familiar voice, and maybe a reg? Why would they be with regs? His body felt unbelievably heavy, so he lay there for a long while, just drifting, but eventually, his curiosity won out and he cracked his eyes open.
He squinted at the harsh medbay lights, groaning when they revealed a developing headache. The voices stopped, and he glanced over when he saw movement to his left. His brow furrowed at the reg medic who appeared next to him.
“Rise and shine, trooper.” The medic said. “You’re on the Hand of Justice under the care of the 104th and General Plo Koon. We received your distress signal and brought you here to recover.”
Hunter blinked as he processed all that information. He looked past the medic to see Wrecker sitting up on a bed next to him. “Good to see ya up, Sarge!” He could tell that Wrecker was still a little unsteady from whatever they were given, but looked and sounded much better than when Hunter had first found him.
He continued his scan of the room and found Tech and Crosshair asleep on beds across from them. He frowned and sat up, closing his eyes when that made the world spin around him. He felt a steadying hand on his shoulder and looked back up to see the medic. “Woah there, trooper. Your boys are fine, they’re just sleeping it off still. The big guy’s got a hell of a metabolism, woke up a couple hours ago. If you’re up, I’d guess Tech will be soon. It looks like Crosshair caused them a little trouble, so they sedated him more thoroughly, but he’ll be up soon, just got to give him a little longer.”
Hunter frowned a little, but nodded thankfully. “Who’re..?”
The medic huffed a laugh. “Bruise, CMO of the 104th.” Hunter relaxed a little, now that they were on more equal footing.
He let Bruise raise the bed a little, and relaxed back onto it, his tired body thankful. He listened as Wrecker caught him up on all he and Bruise had been talking about. Apparently, some of the people of that planet liked to steal away off-worlders, taking anything of value from them. They weren’t really sure what they did with the people they took, and Hunter didn’t really want to know. He was relieved to hear that the 104th had recovered the Marauder, and it now sat waiting for them in a hangar, along with a good amount of their gear.
After a few minutes, Tech groaned. Hunter watched as he blinked awake, looking lazily over the room. Bruise went over to catch him up like he had with Hunter before he could panic about being on a strange ship. Tech seemed more inclined to sleep than panic at the moment, however, and Hunter let out a slightly concerned chuckle when, before Bruise had even finished speaking, he simply stretched out, flopping onto his side and settling back down to sleep. Bruise retreated with an amused eyeroll as his snores filled the room.
Wrecker laughed. “I think Tech’ll be fine. It’s Crosshair you’ll have to worry about. He won’t take this well.” At that reminder, Hunter looked over at his youngest brother, taking in his wrapped hand, remembering how bruised it had been when he woke up the first time. He sat up a little more, determined to be more awake to be able to help Bruise when Crosshair inevitably tried to make him live up to his name.
Until then, he simply relaxed and watched over his brothers.