Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

37

"Uh-oh." That wasn't good. I took off again, after the clones that hadn't gained enough distance. A claw snapped shut right next to my face - yellow burst from the end of a lightsaber instinctively whipped out, severing the tip of the pincer. The offending crab squealed in pain and fell back, letting me put on an extra burst of speed to catch up with the three clones who had not gained enough distance.

"Weren't you supposed to slow these things down?" Echo fired blindly behind him, more bolts glancing off the crabs' exoskeletons with nothing more than blackened burn marks. They were catching up again, beginning to lunge for our heels with their claws. I slashed at another one, sand rippling and melting into glass underneath the heat of my blade. Momentarily distracted, the crabs fell back against the onslaught of my lightsaber, unsure what to make of a weapon that could actually pierce their tough outer armour.

And as if our luck wasn't already bad enough, the second pod of crabs scuttled out from the gap in the treeline in front of us, cutting us off from our escape. We were trapped.

"Tech, where are you?" Wrecker skidded to a stop, dropping the crate into the sand with a wet thud. He was already reaching for the blaster at his side when The Marauder shot out from around the bend, forward cannons firing into the mess of crabs intercepting us from the front. And underneath the ship, connected only by a thin grappling line, a tiny dark shape that looked a lot like a certain young girl who should be in the ship with Tech.

"Is that Omega?" I squinted at the small figure dangling in mid-air, pink bolts flying from the indistinct weapon attached to its arm. Definitely Omega then.

"Why is Omega hanging off the ship?" Hunter demanded into the comms, disapproval radiating from every word.

"It is an..." Tech trailed off, searching for a viable excuse, "unscheduled study break!"

Right. I could only snort at the response as the girl hopped back onto the landing platform, her fire never holding up even as she fluidly unclipped the grappling line from her belt and sent it back down, the ship jerking around to hover right on top of us,

Wrecker was already running for the clip even as the crabs started to close in, pressing into a tight circle around us. They were nearly on top of us - I pushed out with the Force and threw them backwards again, hooking out a blaster and starting to fire with a lightsaber still gripped in my other hand, fending off the attacking pincers. We already had our backs to the package between us, slowly retreating further as the wall of crabs reared closer and closer, pincers snapping far too close for comfort.

My knees hit the back of the crate; without breaking fire I scrambled onto it after Hunter and Echo and disengaged the lightsaber, the crate rising into the air and crabs around us finally collapsing on top of each other as our shots found purchase in their unprotected flesh. Still they kept coming, legs driving into each other's shells and heads as they leaped and claws grabbing for us even as we ascended beyond their reach, screeching angrily at the loss of their target.

The Marauder veered away from the island the second we were inside the ship, blasting away from the island with the crabs still waving threatening claws after it.

I couldn't be gladder to get away from the beach for once, dragging off my helmet with a quiet sigh and rolling out my right shoulder experimentally. The joint had more than fully healed in the months Hunter had forced me to stay on the ship, though I still found myself checking it occasionally, a nervous habit that had developed after Kamino.

Wrecker groaned, setting the package down next to Hunter with a heavy sound. "I thought the beach was supposed to be relaxing."

"Appreciate the backup," Hunter told Omega, half collapsing into the nearest seat and resting his helmet on his knee, "but try staying inside the ship next time."