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They were following him.
He’d cursed aloud when he’d first realized this, glancing over his shoulder to check their positions again, and proceeded to nearly trip over a branch and barely avoid hitting the ground with a loud crash. Not that the extra noise would have done much to reveal his position - as they were clearly following him by his heat signature. They could be using night vision also, but with the thick forest around them, it wouldn’t be nearly as useful.
Crosshair had considered doubling back around to the ship and the inferno around it to try and hide his heat signature, but he’d quickly noted that it wasn’t the entire contingency of regs that was following him. They must have left some at the wreck to prevent anyone else escaping and him from trying that tactic. If his helmet hadn’t been cracked and broken as it was, he could have tried checking for their heat signatures, but as it was he had to rely on his eyesight.
He was sure that there were six regs following him. They’d spread out slightly, not far enough for him to even consider trying to slip between them, but far enough that they covered the ground behind him like a line and so he couldn’t double back or lead them in circles effectively.
His best strategy would be to destroy whatever technology they had that could sense him, to follow them back whenever they gave up and steal a ship. However - he was on a planet he didn’t recognize, with entirely unfamiliar terrain and no sense of direction. And his ribs still felt like they were burning with every step he took.
Crosshair could deal with six regs. Most likely. If he could regain the high ground - and get out of this forest, preferably - then he’d have a solid advantage. As it was, they had plenty of cover and superior numbers. But they were regs, and he was - better. Even without his favored Firepuncher rifle, he was certain he could do some good damage.
BANG.
He flinched back into cover instinctively at the sound of a blaster firing, wincing as it scorched the bark where his head had just been. He scanned the trees for the source, and noted it had come from a group of two - one holding a datapad, the other a blaster. The others were still spread out in a line.
He raised his rifle and fired one shot, before hurrying onwards.
—
“Kriffing osik.” Cypher muttered over comms moments after the blaster shot. Echo strained his eyes through the trees, trying to spot the commando.
“Did he hit you?” Rex asked before Echo could.
“No.” Cinder, who had taken the shot on the Imperial with his rifle, responded. “He hit the datapad that was doing the scanning, instead.”
There was a moment of silence. Echo glanced back between where he could see Cinder and Cypher as red heat blobs on his HUD, and the fleeing Imperial up ahead. “That’s a long distance shot in the dark.” He remarked, startled. “That’s no amateur sniper.”
“Agreed.” Rex responded. “Make sure to stay behind cover as much as possible. Can you get a scanner back up, Cypher? He might be able to slip off our HUDs since they have less range.”
“Will do.” Cypher affirmed flatly. Echo briefly flicked his infrared vision mode off in favor of night vision, squinting in the direction of the imperial through the darkness. Unsurprisingly he saw nothing other than blackness and trees in that direction. Their target must have an infrared and night vision HUD of his own to aim that well, because it would be impossible to see anything through the forest.
Crosshair probably could have also made that shot - he always used to make shots that Echo didn’t even think were possible half the time - but that was irrelevant now.
Echo shoved away thoughts of Crosshair as soon as they’d come. The Batch had practically splintered after Kamino, with everyone choosing factions and applying blame. It was why he’d been so eager to leave with Rex when Rex had offered him the chance. Avoiding thoughts was easier when there was always something there to do. Such as - killing imperials in a dark forest at midnight to prevent them from informing the Empire about their base locations.
—
Slowly, they were managing to gain on him.
This didn’t actually surprise him - he was injured, and they weren’t. He couldn’t move as fast as he wanted to when every step caused pain.
They probably also still had their infrared sensors up to track him, while he had to manually check all of their locations every few seconds while avoiding tripping on jutting out branches that seemed to be designed to trip people up. It slowed him down immensely, but he wasn’t going to run the risk of any of them managing to sneak up on him somehow.
Every time he couldn’t see one of them for a few moments, he felt his heart rate increasing slightly. None of them had tried to fire at him since he’d destroyed one of their sensors. He’d kept a special eye on the one he’d identified as the sniper. He’d have to kill that one first.
He could try and fire at them through the trees, but the chances of them moving were too high. Obviously he wouldn’t miss, but he wouldn’t be able to get instantly killing shots as it was. They kept ducking behind trees when following him, having realized he could shoot back. He had limited ammunition, and so he had to use it to actually damage them. The shot on the sensor datapad had been a warning shot, really.
When briefly scanning the area in front of him for a path, something slightly silvery and thus distinctive in the forest caught his eye. It was a thin wire - a trip wire. He paused momentarily, scanning around it, and noted the net below it, ready to trap any passerbys.
A trap meant that something important was nearby. He’d been making a wide circle as he went, trying to head back in the direction the regs had come from, and it looked like he was beginning to succeed. Their base of operations must be close.
As he continued, the traps started appearing more often - trip wire traps, explosives, and even a pitfall in one section. He also was scanning the whole forest around in case they tried to send more regs from the base to trap him between them. He had to pay more attention to what was in front of him, and so he didn’t notice the regs behind on him gaining as fast as they were.
At least - not until they fired on him.
He barely heard the bolt fire before it hit him solidly in the back of his damaged armor, throwing him forward into a tree. He twisted, raising his rifle with a pained hiss, and fired straight back at the sniper.
He didn’t have time to see the damage his shot had done before he was moving to avoid the troopers on the right who opened fire on him. The ones on his left were still farther away, so he paused for a second, hiding behind a tree trunk as the shots flew past him. One of the troopers on his left had hurried in the direction where the sniper had been, which meant he’d probably hit.
The moment the regs pinning him down paused to reload, he stepped out of cover. One shot hit one of the blaster rifles out of the hands of one, and the other hit the other’s visor with enough force to make it shatter. And then he was running, sprinting down hill and away from them, with careful glances over his shoulder to check if they were following him.
They didn’t follow him for long, though, thankfully. His head was beginning to hurt worse, and his vision was starting to blur slightly when he turned his head too fast. Almost certainly he’d managed to get a concussion in the landing - just what he needed.
But at least he wasn’t being followed. Perhaps they’d decided that they’d get him later. Or he’d killed the sniper with his shot and they were busy being sentimental about it. More likely, they’d assumed the traps that were all around him by now would catch him first.
After a long glance behind him to check for pursuit, Crosshair froze instantly on glancing forward. He was inches from a tripwire, about to hit it, and he hurriedly took a few steps back. There were traps every just about every meter, but he still couldn’t see any sign of a base of any sort. Was this some sort of trap, or did they just take no chances with their security?
Obviously they’d not created this with him in mind.
The almost silent flick of a blaster onto kill mode made his head snap to his left. Not five meters away from him, two regs stood behind trees with blasters pointed at him. He raised his rifle on reflex, pointing it at the closest one. He’d kill that one if they fired on him, but the other one could easily kill him.
Kriffing karabast.
He’d thought he’d lost them.
At least regs were predictably kriffing loyal, and so being able to kill one would neutralize their threat.
(He’d been like that once, for his brothers. Then they’d left him.)
—
“Surrender now, and we’ll let you live.” Rex said flatly, his voice completely steady despite the rifle pointed at him. Echo blinked, glancing at Rex for a brief moment - hardly noticeable in the darkness - startled. There was no way they were letting an imperial live, now that he knew where they were.
Especially not since they’d left the whole commando squad far behind doing emergency aid on Cinder. The imperial had managed to almost kill Cinder with one shot from his rifle. Even if they did try and spare him, Cypher would probably shoot him in an instant for nearly killing his twin. Probably their squadmates would react similarly. Echo knew he would have if his brothers were here and in such danger.
“You’re lying.” The imperial’s voice came out muffled by his helmet. Echo’s eyes widened slightly, his fingers clenching the gun tighter. Surely it wasn’t that easy to guess Rex’s bluff. Rex was a terrible liar - but that was to people who knew him, not random karking imperial nat-borns. “Let me leave, and I won’t shoot you.”
“Persuasive.” Rex scoffed dismissively.
The imperial’s head tilted slightly. The motion almost felt familiar. It reminded him of - no, he wasn’t thinking about this now. Not when Rex was literally at gunpoint.
Then the imperial took a step back. Echo’s finger twitched around his trigger, but he didn’t dare to fire. He wasn’t going to test his reaction speed against Rex’s life.
Rex didn’t fire either. Echo was pretty sure that he was communicating with the squad that he’d ordered from the base to try and trap the imperial from behind, but they were too far away to help them now.
The imperial took another step back, and now he was right next to cover behind a tree. How he kept avoiding all the traps this whole time was beyond Echo - he’d had to follow Rex very carefully and he’d still almost blundered into many of them.
If he got into cover, then they’d lose their advantage. Rex had to know this too, but Echo wasn’t going to do anything that could possibly risk one of the last vode he had left.
Then Rex fired.
The imperial dodged into cover faster than Echo had ever seen any nat-born move, the bolt passing barely over his shoulder instead of through his throat.
“I warned you.” The imperial hissed.
It took Echo a moment to realize that he’d heard two, not one, blaster bolts fire.
Abruptly, Rex’s gun dropped out of his hands, and he collapsed against the tree.
The imperial was running away now, dodging between trees as cover to prevent any shots from hitting him. But Echo didn’t fire more than three shots after him before he hurried over to Rex, his heart in his throat.