Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

57

I gasped as my ribs impacted against the beam, knocking the air clear from my lungs. I was already slipping - my arms wrapped tight over it and I hauled myself on top, heaving huge breaths in an attempt to recover myself.

Wrecker!" Omega screamed as a buck slammed into him and knocked him down, his large form immediately disappearing under the onslaught of animals. His grappling line went slack, hanging limply next to the other three with the occasional buffet from a passing animal.

I rolled to my feet despite the lingering breathlessness, all four of us staring down into the charging herd for any sign of him. Several agonising seconds passed with nothing, and I rocked forward, ready to leap down and physically part the herd with the Force if necessary, just as he surged out from the mass of ibisidions and latched onto his grappling line, laboriously pulling himself hand over hand out of the stampede.

"You must protect the ipsium case!" Tech yelled to him as soon as he was within earshot. Wrecker stiffened, affront pouring off him in waves.

"Well, what about protecting me?!"

"If it explodes, we'll all be dead!"

Sick of their arguing, I turned my attention downwards instead and called the canister to me with an outstretched palm, only for the next buck to ram straight into it and send it to the ground again. Biting back a curse, I shouted down to Tech, "I can't grab it! It's too dangerous!"

He threw a meaningful look at Wrecker, who protested incoherently in response, but let go of the rope and dropped down into the stampede again, throwing himself over the container of ipsium before he could give it a second thought. Ibisidions thundered over his back, their hooves driving into his back with a painful intensity. I winced, feeling the phantom pains along my own spine even from a safe distance. At least he had been enhanced to withstand more pain.

We clung to the arch of rock for what felt like hours, watching the rest of the stampede thunder on below us, slowly dwindling and eventually moving on altogether, leaving a bruised and battered Wrecker still curled protectively around the container.

"My back!" The clone lamented, getting back to his feet with a groan once Hunter had deemed it safe and we shimmied down the lines to check on him.

"I would advise not dropping it next time," was all Tech told him, devoid of any sympathy and heading straight for the case of ipsium to haul it up again.

"Well, why don't you carry it?" My lips pressed into a thin line, watching their argument start up yet again. The pair were known to bicker - their personalities were direct opposites of each other in several aspects and it led to clashes more often than not - but this was excessive. They'd been at each other's throats since... since Echo had left, actually. Now that I really thought about it, everyone had taken Echo's departure badly. Between Omega's depression and Wrecker and Tech's constant fighting, the air on the Marauder had changed significantly. Hunter would never admit it, but he had also become more withdrawn, preferring to spend his time in the cockpit alone rather than deal with any of them.

Dust swirled around me, kicked up by the sudden strong gales. I ignored it at first, until thunder boomed in the distance, much closer than it had been before. Only then did I look back in the direction we'd come, seeing the angry clouds looming just above us. It looked like the storm had caught up with us.

"Well, that would certainly explain the stampede," Tech remarked offhandedly, staring up at the lightning flashing within the depths of the dark clouds. I resisted the urge to scoff at the very obvious comment and turned to run again, despite the futility of it.

We made it all of five metres before it engulfed us, darkness instantly obscuring our vision and howling wind buffeting us at every opportunity. I could barely see my hand stretched out in front of me, could only faintly make out Omega's cry of pain and Wrecker's protests as they were pummelled by flying rocks. Lightning struck the ground before me, earning a yelp and a startled leap backwards into Wrecker, who bellowed something unintelligible in response. Hunter yelled something about finding shelter, but the wind was so loud I couldn't pick out the individual words.