Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

58

Astera:

It didn't take long before the grumbling started again.

"It's gonna take days to clear a path at this rate," Wrecker howled, sending another boulder clattering down the heap with an exasperated shove. I snorted quietly, holding a hand out to another boulder and shifting it to the pile we'd accumulated a short distance away. It could have been done in a fraction of the time, but as long as they insisted on sniping at each other and letting things go unsolved, I decided wasn't going to overexert myself. This had gone on long enough, and it needed to be solved. I had time. I could wait until they had.

"Complaining won't make it go any faster," Hunter snapped, even his usually tolerant temper wearing thin.

Tech wedged his legs behind another boulder, heaving away at it to no avail. "This operation could use a well-placed detonation," he panted. "A small amount of ipsium would have been more than enough."

His tone had taken on that familiar griping again, one that Wrecker took offence to again, all too easily.

"Well, we had a small amount, but somebody dropped it!" 

That was it. Screw waiting for them to solve it themselves. I'd had enough.

"Would you all just quit it already?" I whirled on them, my voice cracking like a whip in the ensuing silence. "If any of you cared about anything beyond who's at fault here, maybe you'd notice what your arguing is doing to Omega. She is already suffering enough because of Echo's absence. She doesn't need the rest of her brothers tearing each other apart over a simple mistake!"

Three pairs of eyes stared at me, shocked into silence, and I pressed on. "No one is at fault here. Without Echo, we are a man down and we cannot cover all our bases. Something was bound to happen sooner or later, and we were just unlucky it happened to be the Marauder being stolen!" I jabbed a finger at Tech. "You dropped the container as well, Tech. Maybe Wrecker should have been watching the ship more closely, but we wouldn't be in here if you hadn't dropped the ipsium."

He opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. Omega is right about one thing at least. We're supposed to be a squad, not a bunch of cadets who can't figure out how to swallow their pride and work together. So how about we quit the dramatics and maybe focus on finding a way out of here?"

It wasn't until after I'd finished that I noticed all three of them standing slightly more at attention, almost like they'd just gotten an official reprimand from someone higher up. Someone like a commander. But I found now I couldn't care less. If it got the point across, so be it.

"Fine," Tech huffed eventually. "Since losing the mineral was my mistake, I'll search for any potential extractions within this mine."

"That's not the only mistake you need to fix," Hunter reminded him sharply.

"Yeah, go check on the kid," Wrecker added.

He only frowned, pursing his lips. "But she said she wanted to be alone."

"Look, Tech," I exhaled and pinched the bridge of my nose. "She's clearly having a hard time adjusting to Echo leaving. You need to go talk to her."

Tech glanced between the three of us, and seeing no signs of anyone wavering, rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. "Very well."

Scooping up his gear and clicking on his torch, he forged into the tunnels the same way Omega had gone. I watched him go, waiting until his light disappeared before returning to the rocks that still needed to be moved.

"Spoken like a true commander," Hunter was suddenly beside me, tone threaded with light amusement. I glanced up at him with a humourless snort, shifting another rock aside with a flick of my wrist.