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Crosshair doesn’t believe in these… feelings Omega talks about sometimes, or that anybody talks about, because obviously they aren’t Jedi and don’t just know stuff somehow. But he’s not taking anything very serious ‘cuz obviously if there was some sort of threat, that would have to mean a ship coming in, and Tech would’ve picked something like that up. Everyone on Pabu is on high alert, and his scanners would’ve shown something. And they didn’t.
“What’s with you?” Crosshair asks, eyeing his very, very weird brother who’s been sitting all antsy on the random stairs in the middle of the plaza.
That, obviously, has Emerie all perked up and panicking. It would have Crosshair rolling his eyes at his worry-wort sis if Hunter wouldn’t kick him for it. Again. “Is something wrong? Are there –”
Hunter looks up, frowning. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Somethin’ other than me eating too many ice cones?” Wrecker asks, who’s somehow managed to smear the stuff in question all over his face.
Crosshair throws him an overwhelmingly disgusted look. How could you eat like that?! “Wrecker, no one cares about your ice cones.”
“How could you say that?” his brother wails. “They’re the –”
Hunter’s hand shoots up, effectively shushing all of them, and he gets to his feet, lifting his macrobinoculars to scan the area, frowning.
“There is nothing out there,” Tech immediately jumps on. “If there was, my sensors would have –”
An explosion goes off.
“You were saying?” Emerie asks.
“Evidently, my scanners did not pick that up,” Tech argues, but Crosshair’s already off and running, and he’s not the only one heading towards the large platform that the Marauder was on.
By the time they reach the explosion sight, there’s already dozens of people milling about, crowded in and scrambling, shouts being called from everywhere as they push their way through the crowd towards the smoking remains of the Marauder, because someone blew it up.
That was their ship, and there’s only one real possible culprit which immediately has Crosshair absolutely livid. No one is ruining his ship.
Kamino is already at the bottom of the sea. This is the only home he and his brothers really have, have had ever since they met Omega.
Omega, their leader, who someone fished out of the ocean, because she was unknowingly close enough to the blast to take a partial hit, and thanks to whatever not-Force is out there, she’s still alive. One of the other clone cadets hanging around has already taken off to fetch AZI, and Crosshair scrambles towards the stretcher that his sister is on.
He doesn’t even know what happened. Was it a fight? Did someone attack her? They didn’t even have a warning. They didn't even hear blaster-fire. It's not like there was a shootout.
Emerie makes a strangled little sound, and Tech shares an uncomfortably helpless look with Hunter before awkwardly going to squeeze his twins’ shoulder as she desperately grips the edge of the metal.
Crosshair just shrugs – he doesn’t know what to say to the girl, either, but it’s hard to think anything through the white-hot panic buzzing in his mind. Someone blew up their ship, and there’s Omega, their leader, lying so cold and still.
Tech moves to get her helmet off, and whatever air left in his lungs escapes him in a strangled little sound when Crosshair actually sees Omega’s face. There’s blood. He can’t see what’s bleeding, but something is – blood streaking down through the messy blond of her hair, across her face, and in general – really everywhere.
The mess it’s left is genuinely too much for him to know what’s what.
Wrecker makes a strangled, wounded little sound beside him, and then Echo is finally there, panickily shoving his way through the crowd and yelling for – someone. Words are fuzzy in Crosshair’s brain right now, just a jagged, fuzzy mess of mostly incoherent sounds.
His heart is racing and he can’t breathe.
And what terrifies him just as much isn’t only his sister bleeding out right here, even if his fingers feel freezing as he tightly grips her hand until AZI comes to fuss and panic over her.
“Ships don’t just blow up,” Crosshair gets out, fumbling. “We’ve been compromised.”
“I cannot believe someone could arrive on this island without my knowledge,” Tech whines.
“Oh, yeah?” Wrecker snaps. “Maybe your superior technology isn’t that superior.”
“I never said that!”
“Yeah, you did!"
“I cannot believe I have to tell you this,” Hunter hisses, glaring. “But now is not the right time!”
“I’m staying with Omega,” Emerie blurts out. “I know enough about things like this I may be able to help.”
“If nothing else, it would be good company,” AZI offers.
“Go,” Echo replies. “Crosshair’s right. Someone must’ve made it onto Pabu, avoided our scanners, and found their way here.”
Those operatives. Fives. That’s the only thing that makes sense. One look at Hunter’s face says he’s thinking the same.
“Is Omega gonna be okay?” Wrecker asks quietly, his face strained and pale.
Crosshair doesn’t know the answer – no one does, and he thinks they all know that. He wants to promise yes, wants to believe it, but if they don’t figure something out, fast, then no one will be safe.
“I don’t know,” Hunter replies. “But we need to find another way off this planet, and fast, before –”
“Uh, Hunter?” Crosshair points skywards, towards where very, very familiar massive ships have closed in on them. On Pabu. Their home, the one place in the galaxy he somehow had been naïve enough to believe might be safe, at least for a little while.
His older brother makes a quiet little hiss. “We need a plan.”
“What we need, is a way off this planet,” Echo replies, drawing his blaster. “Get your weapons, and stay low. Get to the mayor’s house. The Empire shouldn’t know to look there.”
Crosshair nods, and Hunter looks overwhelmingly unhappy, but they know how to do what they’re told no matter how many objections to it they’ve got. They know danger well, and how to deal with it. Even if it means listening to orders they really, really don’t like.
"I'm going to go get us a transport," Echo says. "If nothing else, maybe I can contact off-world for help."
"You're going to hijack a gunship alone?" Crosshair asks with a scowl to match his mood.
"Go," Echo orders, and takes off.
He has a million genuine, logical objections he could give to that, but Hunter is motioning them forwards and away. The Empire’s gunships are already descending, and even if they tried to run, they wouldn’t have anywhere to go.
Doesn’t take long before he hears the explosions and sees the fire from the dock – that’s the Empire blowing up the sea skiffs this island spent so long rebuilding after the tsunami, and gives him an instant, newfound level of hate for them. The Empire has done so much to Crosshair and his entire family, and for what?!
“If this were under any other circumstances,” Tech remarks, “I could almost admire their thoroughness. I am impressed. They are doing their upmost to prevent our escape.”
“I’m glad you’re impressed,” Crosshair grumbles snidely. He's not. He's actually vaguely disgusted, but you know, Tech is Tech, and that's always gonna be true.
Hunter is looking upwards towards where Echo has, apparently, jumped onto one of the gunships with his binoculars again. Crosshair doesn’t even needs them – it might be dark, but he can see clear as day as their eldest brother fights for his literal life trying to hijack the thing, but he’s Echo and Echo is good.
He’s really, really good, just maybe not good enough to handle what the Empire’s got for him.
There’s only a few people in the back, and of course, just when Crosshair thinks he might actually be about to make it, a single easy sniper shot shoots out the pilot, and the ship goes careening into the sea.
Hunter makes a quiet, strangled gasp.
Crosshair looks down. “There are too many troops. We won’t be able to reach him on time.” And he’s never been more grateful for their training on Kamino, because if he were in Emerie’s place, if she were here, their sister would be a nonfunctional mount of panic right now, incapable of making a single logical conclusion. His own mind is scrambling, racing, trying desperately to think up something no one will be able to beat.
This is terrifying. Having to make a decision without Omega, something that's going to be a panic, last-minute attempt at saving Echo's life, because his brother might be amazing, but even he can't swim, because that's what happens when you only have one arm. Not to mention being half mechanical.
If someone doesn't get out there by Echo, and get out there soon, there won't be an Echo to pull out of that water. Either he'll drown, the weight of the metal pulling him under with no real way to get back to surface, or he'll be eaten by one of the monsters that do live out there and Emerie is terrified of because Tech told her all about them. Idiot.
And there are too many. The Empire has loaded troops, and they’re already spreading out, and there are people searching everywhere. They have to figure something out fast.
It's just, and he hates to say it, Crosshair is only seeing one option here.
“Doesn’t matter,” Hunter says. “We can do this. We have to get out there to help him.” He’s already fixing his grappling hook to his blaster, so prepared to head out there, no matter who or what he might face. Also, idiot. Why are all Crosshair’s brothers so stupid?
“Hunter,” Tech interrupts, because it just had to be Tech who also sees common sense. Crosshair scowls. “While you know I hate to say this, we will not all be able to make it down to Echo.”
“We have to.”
“Tech and I can draw their fire,” Crosshair intervenes. “You and Wrecker go find Echo.”
He doesn’t want to. Displeasure is written all over his face, but they don’t have a choice, and Hunter has got to know that even if he’s upset. “Alright,” he agrees begrudgingly. “Let’s do this.”
Crosshair nods, and he takes off.
They don’t really have a plan in mind, just causing as much chaos as possible, and Crosshair’s pretty sure he and tech will safely be able to just dodge out of anyone’s line of sight before anything bad happens, right? They are small, after all. And hard to hit.
The Empire invaded Pabu, the one place he thought might actually be safe, and he doesn’t want to think about what that might mean. That a place this amazing could be ruined by those monsters. And, they destroyed the Marauder. If this means they get a petty bit of vengeance, oh, yeah. Tech has got to be equally gleeful. He is the one furiously threatening to murder anyone who touched his ship, after all.
Gonky is okay, but their ship isn’t, and neither is any of the (junk) stuff they collected on their travels. That was their home, and the Empire just took that.
So, yes, Crosshair is as petty as petty can be.
They should’ve discussed plans a little better, maybe.
But for now, he’s keeping that as an objective problem for future Tech and Crosshair, lifts his rifle, and shoots the nearest Imp right through the chest. The fight is on, the shouting starts, and the chaos is on.
They don’t have explosives, which is sad, but he does have an entirely charged battery in his rifle, and his hand blaster, so… this is gonna be fighting as much as they dare.
Crosshair climbs onto a nearby ledge and lies flat, out of sight from sown below as he fires off his weapon, taking down another, and pettily shooting out the engine on a gunship, just to make a point.
People are shooting back, and he jerks his head out of the way. Tech jumps right into the fray of chaos with his own blaster going until he hears his brother’s yelp and peaks over the edge to see someone tried to physically restrain him.
This is Tech. The idiot has no idea what he’s asking for.
And, sure enough, they very, very angry kid just goes at him, hands moving fast and punching whatever nerve areas that lead to immediate and perpetual numbness before ducking into a roll as the poor creature tires to figure out what just happened to him.
The next person to go for Tech gets a Crosshair shot through the chest. They already took his home; they will not take his brother, too.
It’s really fierce determination that keeps them going, Tech doing his hand-to-hand thing which is actually pretty scary, especially being he’s not nearly as small as he was a year ago when they first started this out, and Crosshair shooting. They’re near the dock, and he’d say, clearing a real nice and big area, not to mention drawing a lot of attention.
If not for the image of Omega bleeding out still burning fiercely in his head, and seeing the gunship carrying Echo careening sideways and crashing into the ocean, he might even say he’s having fun.
Okay, fine. Crosshair will say it. He's having close enough to fun compared to the last several days of absolute boring-ness, and that's probably why he let his guard down enough he didn't even notice the figure sneaking up behind him until someone's shot his rifle from his hands, and he's dropping it and scrambling back with a yelp, the sparks singing his hands painfully.
He goes for his hand blaster, but someone hits that aside easily enough, and he's looking up into the dark armor of that clone operative that was hunting them on Teth. Fives.
Not that the name matters, when he doesn't even remember who he is.
Echo couldn't even fight this guy. Crosshair knows that, which means this is undoubtably a losing fight, but not enough to make him stand down. He's a Bad Batcher; he doesn't get scared away from any fight. Not when his brothers are counting on him.
The other's blaster lifts and prepares for what could just as well be a fatal shot, which Crosshair sees and dodges, diving for his dropped blaster. The shot misses - yeah, it was a live one - and the clone, annoyingly, steps on the blaster.
He's also too strong to yank it away, so drop that idea.
Crosshair drops into a roll to avoid the next shot, smirking faintly at the distant panicked shriek of “hold him!!!” from the idiots trying to wrestle with Tech.
He's just playing the trying not to get shot game, which isn't fun at all, so he rocks back on his feet and prepares for a really nice hands-on fight of his own... not that Crosshair gets more than a couple of punches down before getting thoroughly winded.
"Where is your sergeant?" the clone demands, blaster lifted and pointed at him.
He's not gonna shoot. Crosshair knows that; he needs him, because he's the only way to find Omega. "I wouldn't tell you even if I knew," Crosshair snaps back. "And what makes you think we even stayed together?"
There's a pause of hesitation. "You're lying."
Hmmm. No, but maybe he should lie. "Your really nice blast destroyed our ship," he hisses. "It destroyed a lot of other things, too. Well done. You just killed your target. I wonder what the Empire will say to that." It's a pity he can't see the scowl definitely being aimed at him, really.
After what’s probably the world’s most uncomfortable pause, the reg’s hand snaps out and he yanks Crosshair up by the front of his tunic, ignoring his yelp. “She’ll come for you, won’t she?” he guesses.
Oh, so that’s his game. Using Crosshair as bait? Heh. Good thing Omega’s down right now and can’t turn herself over, but he still feels a sinking feeling in his gut as the clone drags him down the steps to meet up with Tech, who has finally, somehow, successfully been restrained by those annoying nat-borns.
Yeah. being a hostage is not cool, and significantly less fun than most of the things they've got to do. Which is just fantastic, and they can't even discuss an escape plan.
Stomping on the clone's foot doesn't help. He knows. He tries. Repeatedly. The efforts don't even work, and neither does the annoying reg even seem to get bored of the back and forth, pushing-and-shoving fight they're having. It's as bad as trying to fight Wrecker when he's having one of those phases where all he wants is to push someone around.
Simply put, there’s no way out, and the Empire sucks.
Crosshair sags against the grip on him and casts a sullen, worried look towards Tech. Tech should know, should have a plan, should have anything – but this once that Crosshair so, so desperately needs him to, he doesn’t have anything.
They’re stuck, and the worried helplessness is written all over his brother’s face.
“I believe it would be best, under the circumstances, if we would simply stand down,” Tech tells him. “There is no way out with our present resources.”
Crosshair sags sullenly.
“Listen to your brother,” the reg has the audacity to tell him.
If this is Fives, and he’s Echo’s twin, they must fight even more than Wrecker and Crosshair. He’s so, so annoying.
The others aren’t coming. If they know what’s good for them, they won’t come, and the Empire will leave Pabu empty-handed.
They don’t.
He doesn’t know what happened, but they must have Shep to thank, or maybe Emerie and AZI and their fast thinking, but the Imps come back to report Omega’s nowhere to be found, and neither are the rest of their squad.
His little smirk of relief is deeply mirrored by Tech.
Who still doesn’t know what to do, and if he’s hurt or scared by that, he hopes it’s not obvious. Tech is being held captive, too, and that must be terrifying.
It is terrifying.
He can’t get away. He’s stuck here, in the Empire’s hands, with no idea what’s gonna happen to him and his brother. Just… trapped. In the unknown.
The operative casts a look down towards him and Tech. “These two will be enough to lur the target out.”
He feels cold.
They’re led to a ship. It’s small, fairly… technological to the point Tech is trying to crawl over everything even with his hands tied, and both the others are getting annoyed.
They are prisoners here. Which is…
Greaaaaaaat.
The others will come. Their squad will come, and that should be relieving, but this time, it just terrifies him. It'll just be a trap, after all. And they'll walk right in. He's got no way to warn them. Which means this will just be another case of sitting around and waiting, hoping their siblings aren’t about to walk into something that could get them all killed.