To Heal Poignancy ■ TECH - The Bad Batch ■

A Run In

"Tapping our comms to track our movements? So predictable," Crosshair stepped towards them. Adla gripped her blasters a bit tighter. They were surrounded.

"Nice to see you too, Crosshair," Wrecker scoffed.

From beside her, Tech and Echo muttered to each other. Adla unwisely tuned them out to keep all of her senses on Crosshair. Her heart beat loudly in her ears.

"Look at you all, scavenging like rats," Crosshair mocked. "And picking up strays. How pathetic."

Adla's voice quietly hitched.

"Why come after us?" Hunter questioned as he kept his blaster onto Crosshair.

"You're traitors," was all Crosshair responded with as he signaled to the other troopers.

"Crosshair, wake up. You're being controlled by an inhibitor chip."

Omega stepped forward, using almost the same pleading tone Hunter used. "He's telling the truth. The Kaminoans put chips in all the clones. Remember what I told you in the brig? You can't help it."

Crosshair responded almost instantly. "Aim for the kid."

Adla's eyes grew wide under her helmet. She wouldn't question how Crosshair would react if he knew she was this "stray" the Batch picked up. He would more than likely shoot her down without question before he brought her cold corpse back so that he could throw it at the Emperor's feet and spit on it.

Adla glanced over at Echo and Tech as Wrecker nervously stood closer to them. Crosshair's threats intensified by the moment. The cannon fired during that precise moment. Chaos erupted as troopers were thrown backward from the blast and others ducked out of the way. Hunter swiftly pulled out his blaster and fired a few shots at the surrounding troopers who remained standing.

Pieces from the ship fell as blaster fire continued to rain from both directions. Adla ducked for cover and pulled Omega down with her. Crosshair commented to aim for the poor girl, but Adla wasn't about to let her get hurt. From their spot behind their shelter, Omega used her bow and arrow while Adla shot stunning blasts at troopers.

Wrecker let out a battle cry before he began to throw troopers overboard. He picked up the torpedo and other explosives. While some of the troopers were handled, Adla gently grabbed Omega's arm to pull her from their hiding spot. Adla followed the Batch as they ran toward the exit.

They, however, were stopped by some troopers. One trooper stood before them and released a flamethrower at them.

"Oh my Maker!" Adla shouted in surprise as she clutched Omega's arms from behind her and subconsciously made sure the girl was not in the line of literal fire. Everyone ducked to avoid the fire as Wrecker threw the torpedo.

"Direct hit. Yeah!" Wrecker celebrated.

●●••

Carefully, Hunter led everyone into a room Adla had never been in before. Echo followed behind Hunter, and Tech behind Echo. Tech turned around and grabbed Omega's hand to help her safely jump onto the ledge. Adla's hands hovered behind Omega to catch her in case she fell. Omega carefully moved around Tech. Meanwhile, Adla firmly clutched Tech's hand to steady herself onto the ledge. They ran to the current room and that left Adla panting. After the stress from earlier that spiked her adrenaline, mixed with the jog to their new exit, her lungs had difficulty gathering breath.

"You have trouble breathing," Tech pointed out to her when she was stable on the ledge. "I noticed you also struggled to catch your breath on Corellia."

"Yeah, I know. It's just my asthma, I'll be better in a minute," Adla reassured as she continued to pant slightly.

Tech took out his datapad to type something. "I was not aware you had lung issues."