STEALTH and TRACK: BOOK ONE

C H A P T E R F O R T Y-F I V E

"You are an optimistic one, aren't you?" The female clone smirked at the muscular clone. "It seems like you've taken my title away. Omega, come on, stop pacing." She reached out and grasped the young girl's arm, pulling her onto her lap and wrapping her arms around her front. "You are making me nervous just watching you. How about this? Ask me something; we need to strike up a conversation to get our minds off of the situation."

"Um, okay..." Omega thought it over. She then swiveled ninety degrees in between Fern's legs and looked up at her. "When are you going to tell Hunter your feelings?"

"Just like that?" Fern huffed. "How do you even know about that? You're too young to know about that kind of stuff."

"Tech told me."

"He told me, too." Wrecker spilled, and she rolled her eyes, cursing, "Wired-Brain, I'll get you for this."

"Hunter has already admitted his." the young girl revealed. 

Fern blinked, then failed to suppress her small grin. Deep down, this didn't surprise her... "Is that so?" she breathed.

"So?" Omega still awaited an answer. Wrecker was interested, as well.

"Okay, okay!" I held up my hands in surrender. "When this mission is over, and we're back on Ord Mantell, I'll tell him. Happy?"

"Are you?" she asked. Before I could reply, the ship's comm channel suddenly erupted.

"Wrecker, Omega, Fern, come in." Hunter's voice was a blessing. 

"It's them!" She practically launched herself off Fern's lap. "We read you, Hunter!"

"We have the target, but we ran into some trouble."

"No wonder why it took so long for you to contact us." Fern quipped. "Where is your location? We are on our way!"

"On our way!" Wrecker laughed excitedly.

The two adult clones piloted the Marauder to the pinpoint coordinates the instant Tech transmitted them. They circled around the west side of the mountain where they spotted a wide tunnel in the rock wall. "There they are!" Wrecker pointed.

"We are on approach!" Omega signaled Hunter.

"We see you!" Suddenly, blaster fire exploded over the comms, advising the three on the ship to hasten their progress. Once they reached the mountain face, they rotated the ship parallel with the ingress open towards the squad, who were backed on a thin ledge on each side of the tunnel. Fern jumped from the pilot's seat, ordering Omega to hold the ship steady and Wrecker to assist her getting everyone on board. Once the ramp was lowered, she leaned out with one foot and one hand clinging to the ship. The high-altitude wind whipped around her head as her nearly-dangling body swayed.

"A little closer, Omega!" she shouted. The Marauder rocked as it inched towards the ledge. "Let's go, boys!" Stretching her free hand out, Tech, the first to jump, clasped their wrists together before he even landed on the ramp. Using all her strength, she yanked him up behind her so that he could take over flying. Next to her, Wrecker helped the regular clone the others rescued, though Fern didn't get a good look of him. 

"Hunter! Echo!" she cried, desperate to get them onboard.

Abruptly, enemy ships soared in from above. Tech was forced to retract from the mountain to avoid getting destroyed. Wrecker was the only reason Fern didn't tumble off the ramp. 

"Wrecker, get the tail gun!" Tech ordered as he steered the ship skyward. Hunter and Echo would have to hang on until they circle back around. There were too many enemy vessels firing at them, and it wasn't long until they lost their rear reflector shields. "We're losing power!" the pilot announced.

"Omega, get that hunk of metal over here!" Fern shouted, and the young girl caught on. "Gonky, we need you!" She attached the droid's power rod to the ship's access port, regenerating the power. 

"It's working! Systems are back online!"

"Tech, we have to get to them! They won't be able to hold on for much longer!" Fern warned. She could hear the enemy's ships whirling out of control before crashing and exploding against the rock structures as Wrecker played his role sufficiently. 

"I am aware!" Tech clicked the comm on. "We are coming back around! Be ready!"

Fern scurried back to the open ramp, her heart was racing from either desperation or adrenaline, and swung her whole body off like before. Her fingernails dug into the doorways' frame as her opposite hand stretched out to the two remaining clones on the mountain's ledge, shouting over the engine and wind, "Come on!" Echo jumped first. She caught him with little effort, hoisted him behind her where Omega steadied him, and viscerally slung her arm out to grab the last man.

Pow! Pow! Pow-Pow!

Blaster fire exploded into the mountain face above the tunnel. Tech was forced to veer the ship on its side with the ramp facing up. Fern nearly lost her balance from the rapid jolt, but her eyes remained on Hunter as he leapt from the crumbling ledge and descended towards her. Their wrists locked. Simultaneously, his foot slipped upon landing on the bottom step...

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FERN'S POV

In that moment...two fundamental truths zipped through my mind fluidly...The first was the inevitable release of one of my hands. I was either going to drop Hunter, or my fingers were going to break away from the doorframe. The second truth was...if even one of us are captured by the Empire, Crosshair will come...

And I refused to allow him to take Hunter alone. I was not losing him again.

Thus...the split second after our hands clasped onto each other's wrists and Hunter's foot slipped from under him, my hand that clung to the doorframe was ripped away and the two of us tumbled off the Marauder...

"HUNTER!!! FERN!!!" Omega screams echoed as the sergeant and I attempted to gain our bearing while we plummeted. The tops of the trees were a mere kilometer away. I was blatantly exposed to a tragic ending if I smacked into those or anything, for I was not wearing a scrap of armor unless one counted my gauntlets... Knowing this, Hunter, still fastened to my tiny wrist with an iron-grip, wrenched me against his chest plate. He locked one arm across my shoulder blades, the other he used to hold and protect my head underneath his chin. His feet wrapped around the back of my knees so that my legs wouldn't flap. My own arms enclosed around his torso under his arms. Just as we crashed into the forest below, our embrace viscerally tightened.

We were tossed back and forth, snapping every branch we came in contact with. Hunter was taking on the full, brunt force. Some of the twigs and spiked leaves scratched at every exposed area of my body. Eventually, the last few limbs broke our momentum and we pounded against the hard planet's surface on our sides. Upon impact, our self-enveloped cocoon broke, and I bounced in a tuck-and-roll away from him. While we both groaned with possible concussions and definite aching bruises, it was a clear indication we'd survive the harrowing fall.

My comm attached to my gauntlet was miraculously operational, for I heard Tech's desperate report. "We cannot take many more hits!" Simultaneously, an enemy transport shuttle landed a few meters away. Hunter and I managed to recover to our feet, knowing fully there was no escape for us...

"Get the ship out of here." Hunter insisted. "We'll find another way."

"Negative! The odds of escape are not in your favor!"

"Listen to him, Wired-Brain!" I cried into my comm, panting afterwards. "Do it! We'll be okay!"

"Go, Tech!" the sergeant's voice cracked. "That's an order!" I knew the intellectual clone would rather not follow, but he was a good man and soldier, and we watched from below as the Marauder switched gears and rocketed out of the planet's atmosphere to make a speedy jump to hyperspace.

"No!" Omega screamed. "We have to go back for them! Hunter, Fern, tell them to come back! ORDER them to come back!" Her voice strained my heart. Imperial soldiers from the shuttle were surrounding us with blasters pointed right our chests when I bravely nodded to Hunter. He, in return, clicked his device one last time.

"Sorry, Omega...I can't do that."

We raised our arms above our heads, and surrendered.