Lost in the Familiar

Chapter 5 - They'll Run Into Smoke

Author's Note: Thoughts and predictions, everyone? :)

~ Amina Gila

They run for the nearest exit door, which opens onto a balcony off the top level of the building. Clones are running down the street below, alongside a tank. Wrecker and the other clone join up with them moments later.

"There," Hunter says, moving to the edge of the balcony and pointing to the tank. "We'll seize that tank and blow our way outta here." Still as fast at thinking as Anakin remembers him as.

"Let me deal with it," Anakin requests, and he nods.

Anakin jumps off the rail onto the top of the tank, blaster drawn. It'd be so much easier if he could use his lightsaber, but these are clones, and he doesn't want to hurt them.

It only takes a minute to stun all the clones on the walker, and he jumps back to the top. "All clear," Anakin calls to them.

It's almost insane how badly he's missed fighting with clones.

He resolutely does not think about how badly he misses Rex and Jesse or any of his own men back home.

Wrecker fires a grappling cable onto the tank, and Anakin jumps back inside, giving them room to come on.

Tech instantly gets to work on taking control of the walker, and Wrecker much too gleefully throws the other clones out the door.

Of course, they hardly make it anywhere before another nearby walker starts firing at them. The walker jolts, nearly throwing him off balance as one of its legs gives out and they drop to the ground.

"The rear axle stabilizer is offline," Tech reports, "We will need to recalibrate manually."

Anakin sighs, glancing around. "I only know one way out," he says, "It's a bit incriminating, but I don't know what else to do." This is not the kind of attention they wanted, but really, he couldn't expect anything else. If he was alone, he could have taken the Senator out the way he came in, but with all of them here? There's too many. They'd never be able to go unnoticed.

"What are you thinking?" Hunter asks, a shred warily.

Anakin pulls out his lightsaber. "Best way to fight tanks."

Hunter glances at the still unnamed member, who shrugs in response. The exchange strikes Anakin as a little odd – in his time, Hunter was the oldest, and he was in charge. That's definitely still true here, but whoever this is, he and Hunter have... a very different relationship. It reminds Anakin a little of how, at the start of the war, he always used to look to Rex for help on how to lead, because he wasn't sure how to do it. He got used to it fast enough, and nor does he think this is the same, but it's still... odd.

"Tech, get this bucket up and running," Hunter orders, turning back to him. "Wrecker and I will help hold them off."

Anakin jumps out of the walker door, scanning their surroundings. There's one tank right behind them, no doubt more on their way, and a good number of troops on the ground. The tank is what's dangerous, so he goes for that, leaving the others to Hunter and Wrecker.

They're perfectly capable of holding their own just fine.

The tank is preparing to fire on the one they borrowed, so Anakin cuts off the cannon part of it with his lightsaber, ripping it open and jumping down inside.

Another cannon blast flies over the top of his tank, striking the ground nearby where Hunter and Wrecker are. The ground shudders from the explosion.

Another tank must be approaching from behind him, and Anakin jumps clear of his right before a second blast strikes it, blowing it up, too.