The Runaway {Hunter} (WATTYS 2022)

Chapter 1

Ships above the sunny sky roared to life as men walked all around her, going about their stations. She walked with her head high, nodded to the men who passed her. The men who all looked the same but were all different in their unique ways. She gave everything she had to these clones, they were her family.

With her helmet under her arm, she walked across the airfield seeing her old friend waiting for her. "Senator Tane." He greeted. "Thank you for coming to Anaxes." He almost sighed in relief.

"Captain." She smiled. "Now, I know you wouldn't have called me all the way out here if it wasn't important." She said as she approached the clone with blue on his white armour.

"You known it." He grinned as they shook hands.

"What's the mission Rex?" She asked, her hand on her hip.

"We're doing your favourite," he grinned, her posture changed as her face painted her classic smirk. "We're going behind enemy lines."

She nodded and saw Cody walking towards them with Jesse, and Kix. "It always seems to be you boys that love doing the crazy missions."

"Don't you love them too?" Rex fired back, causing her to smile to her favourite clone.

The group of men approached the two, the woman saluted the Commander and nodded. "Commander,"

"Thank you for joining us Senator." Cody shook her hand.

She nodded, "I don't mean to be the downer, but..." she looked between Jesse and Rex, finally to Kix, "a group of five going behind enemy lines doesn't sound like a lot."

Cody smirked to her, placing his hand on her shoulder, "Oh we're not alone on this mission."

Cody turned away and started walking towards the busy airstrip, Jesse and Kix followed close behind. Rex threw a confused look to his friend which earned a worried one back. The two hurried up towards the Commander. "So why haven't I heard of this squad?" Rex asked his friend.

Rex asked his question, a ship came flying through the air and came in hot on the landing strip. It came it fast and landed after causing some men on the strip to run off so they wouldn't get hit.

"Experimental unit Clone Force 99." Cody said as they approached the landing ship. "They're defective clones with Uh... desirable mutations."

"Defective?" She turned to Rex who shrugged.

"Heh, 99... nice touch." Rex chuckled.

"They call themselves, "The Bad Batch."

The steam released from the ship in front of them as the side door opened. As the steam settled, the clones emerged from the ship. First, was a normal looking average looking clone, he cracked his knuckles and his neck as he stepped down off the ship. Close behind him we're three different looking armoured clones. One wore more white, rather then the red and black work by the others. His goggles eyes were deep in his pad in his hands. Next to him was a more regular clone, his helmet painted a cross point over one of his eyes, a sniper on his back. Behind the three, was a much bulky and tall clone. He took his helmet off to reveal his bald head, scars painted the left side of his face, his left eye grey, possibly blinded by whatever damage he had seen, or done.

"The cavalry had arrived!" His big voiced boomed.

Jesse glanced at Kix as the Senator kept her curious eyes on the clones in front of her. She felt the uneasiness of the two men behind her, but she had a very good feeling about this Clone force 99.

As the group walked closed to them, the first clone, who seemed to be the leader, took his helmet off. As he lifted his helmet off, it revealed a very unique tattoo across his face, the left side was half of a skull. His hair was darker and longer than any clone she had ever seen. It was held in place by a red bandanna with a white skull on it. The other clone also took his off to show his tattoo, a sniper cross shot across his right eyes. His face was tall with grey hair, he had a brooding look to him, which was very different from his leader who held himself high.

"These guys are clone?" Kix said as they moved closer. "They don't look like clones to me."

His words were true. They really didn't look like clones. They were all different, they were even built different. The last member of the group took his helmet off, to show that he still wore goggles, his face also tall.

The group met in the middle with Cody in front. He put his hand out and shook the hand of the man with the red bandanna. "Sergeant, good to see you again." Cody greeted warmly.

"You too sir." He replied, his voice low and smokier then most clones.

"This is Hunter." Cody introduced to the group.

"Sorry we're late Commander. We were putting down an insurrection on Yalbec Prime when your comm came in. Had a few unforeseen... complications." His eyes grazed across the group in front of him and landed on the Senator, who was taking in this new batch of clones. She felt his eyes on her, causing them to lock eyes from a moment.

The tallest one chuckled "Ever fought a male Yalbec?"

"Um. No." Jesse stammered, "Can't say I have."

"You're lucky!" He laughed again, "Only way to kill 'em is with one of these." From his leg, he pulled out a large knife and showed it only inches away from Jesse's face, earning a chuckle from the Senator. She couldn't help but laugh at how uneasy Jesse had become.

"That's right." Hunter stepped in, "Wrecker here cut off the Queen's stinger while she was still alive." Wrecker out his knife away and grinned, "That's why all those Yalbec males tried to eat us."

"Uh technically," the one with glasses pushed forward, "they were trying to mate with us. And, for your information, the stinger of a Yalbec Queen is a delicacy on some planets."

"They call him Tech." Cody said, Rex gave her a look, earning a smirk.

"Yeah," Hunter nudged Tech's shoulder. "He can fill your head with useless info for hours. Crosshair, on the other hand" Hunter pointed to the sniper behind him, who was chewing on a toothpick, "he's not much of a conversationalist." He eyes burned into the clones around the woman, even hers for a moment. "But when you have to hit a precise target from ten klicks," Hunter continued, "Crosshair's your man."

The group of clones looked amongst each other in shock at the group before them. The Senator huffed and smiled, her hand on her hip. "Impressive." She looked towards Rex who watched as she looked around at the clones before her.

"So, Commander," Hunter spoke again, "what kind of suicide mission do you have for us this time?"

A shuttle came by to pick up the team, the Commander motioning towards it as he moved closer. "Let's get going. We'll brief your squad and the Senator on the way."

The Bad Batch followed Cody, all while looking quite confused at a woman amongst them. The crew jumped onto the shuttle and shuffled into the ship. The Bad Batch looked to each other as the Senator stood next to Sergeant Hunter, the two giving a glance before holding onto the rails, the ship taking off to their mission.