Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

26

The grappling lines deployed, sending us down into the darkened caverns, the already setting sun and our flashlights the only sources of light. Wrecker gripped onto the unwinding cable for dear life, sparing glances to the ground below. Each time he did, his hands flexed a little tighter around the grappling line. I could practically see him swallow.

My feet hit the ground first, any noise muffled by the blanket of webs covering the ground, the walls, everywhere I looked. Wrecker and Cid landed just as softly after me, the three of us disconnecting the hooks on our harnesses and keeping tight grips on them as we fanned out, delving deeper into the caverns in search of the six spice containers we needed for Omega's life.

Three muted white beams of light swept over the floor and the surrounding web walls, each of us taking care not to walk too loudly, hoping nothing would crack as we stepped onto it. If we brought them up, there would be no escape this time.

"Found one," Wrecker's quiet whisper floated over to me, both Cid and I turning back to head over to the first of the dark containers.

"I'll secure it." She nudged him out the way none too gently, clipping her line to its handle and tugging on it twice, a signal to bring it up. "Start looking for the other crates. Quietly."

I held back a snort - like we hadn't been already? - and moved off again when the first crate began to rise, the opposite direction of Wrecker, still keeping a tight grip on my cable.

Two hours passed, and three more crates had been sent up to the Marauder, one at my feet and Wrecker laboriously dragging the last one towards us. The sun had already been setting when we'd gone down, and it had only descended further, tones of orange, pink and purple blooming across the sky. On any other day I might have thought of it as pretty. But right now, I glanced up nervously, noting that I could no longer see the sun. We had to get out. Now.

"Last crate," Wrecker panted, dropping heavily onto the crate as Cid clipped a grappling line to it, "in hand."

"Rest later," Cid snapped at him, holding up her comlink to her face. "Final crate secure. Bring us up."

The last cable was secured onto my harness, and the three of us began to rise, Wrecker and Cid sitting atop the last two crates. Wrecker twitched at every little noise, flashlight darting to try and catch the sources of the noise. It sounded like the irlings' wings, buzzing and darting around us as the sun dipped further and the first of them began to wake.

"Quit squirming." Despite her biting remarks, even Cid was glancing around nervously, hearing the fluttering of wings just as we did. I could see the rails above us, a single destroyed cart still barely clinging on - we were halfway there. We could make it before the horde woke.

The edge of Cid's crate cIipped the cart as we rose past it, bumping it with a creak, deafening in the absolute silence of the caverns. I cringed at the noise, even more when the imbalanced weight caused the cart to topple off the rail, crashing loudly first to the bottom of the rail, then bouncing off the sides of the wall and one of the tunnels, before disappearing down it, the sounds of impact fading the farther it travelled from us. Closer to the sleeping horde.

"Oh." Wrecker dragged the single syllable into several seconds. "Maybe they didn't hear it?"

"I don't think we're that lucky." Cid's mouth pressed into a thin, worried line, searching the tunnels below us. The screeching had already started, irlings waking up their brethren as they realised their sleep had been disturbed. Rallying themselves to destroy their waker.

"Yeah, me neither." I hooked a blaster out of its holster, eyes also trained on the tunnel lit up by three flashlights. We were still rising rapidly, closer and closer to the Marauder, but the speed was still not enough as the first of the irlings burst forth from their sleeping place.