Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

71

Astera:

"The Imperial transport Echo hijacked was assigned to the Advanced Science Division." Tech pulled up the schematics of the ship, large sections of information missing where the data had been corrupted before Echo could get to it.

"Never heard of it." Hunter folded his arms, narrowing his eyes at the display. Tech only nodded - he'd clearly been expecting that sort of answer.

"That is because it is a clandestine operation. There are no records of its location or purpose. All I could find on it was the chief scientist in charge, Doctor Royce Hemlock." The only shot the records had was a grainy one, taken from far away, of a middle-aged man dressed in nondescript grey clothing and a platoon of stormtroopers behind him, with one commando at his shoulder. "An officer expelled from the Republic science corps due to his unauthorised and unorthodox experiments."

I grimaced - unauthorised and unorthodox was usually code for torture or sentient experimentation, sometimes both. His features were hard to see clearly, but the cold, calculating expression on his face told me that he was certainly the type to pursue such research.

"Why were they sending clone prisoners to him?" Omega's eyebrows furrowed, staring at the image with almost a sort of fear.

"I do not know, but it gets worse." Tech scrolled through a report on his datapad, the lines of text moving far too fast for me to pick anything out from over his shoulder. "Previous transfer records recovered from the ship's logs list other clone prisoners detained by the Advanced Science Division. And Crosshair is one of them."

The ripple of shock that passed through the ship was almost palpable. Crosshair, a clone prisoner? Judging from the manifesto that Tech had pulled together, and what Echo had told us, the only clone troopers that were being detained and imprisoned were the ones accused of dissidence or outright treason against the Empire. If Crosshair had been detained, that had to mean-

"You mean Crosshair turned on the Empire?" Wrecker voiced the thought that was on everyone's minds.

"How sure are you about this?" Hunter leaned forward, watching the expression on Tech's face intently, but I could still see the hope glimmering in his eyes. Crosshair had seemed so far beyond redemption they'd all given up hope, however unknowingly, but now... Now there was another chance.

"Very," Tech answered gravely. "After discovering his clone number on the transfer register, I checked our old comm channels and found a recent distress message sent from Crosshair's old code."

"What did it say?" My words were careful, hedging. As much as I wanted to know Crosshair's message, as I was sure the rest of them did, I was almost afraid at what the message contained. It could very well be something none of us wanted to hear.

"Plan 88. The Seeker." Several sets of eyes flashed up to meet each other's in alarm, mine included. Plan 88... I remembered that one dimly from Saleucami. I'd been knocked out of commission, half awake and lungs damaged from smoke inhalation, but the memories of Crosshair's report when he'd gone out to scout and discovered the Separatists hunting us through the planet. Plan 88, he'd told them. Go to ground. It was how we'd found the Lawquanes. Plan 88 meant we were being targeted.

"We are being targeted," Tech continued, unknowingly echoing my thoughts. "I believe he is warning us."

"Or it's a trap, like he's set for us before." The hope was still there on Hunter's face, but his hyper vigilance had won out again, his words cautious and calculating. Crosshair had taken Hunter's comm to set the last trap for the Batch, right in front of us. But that... that had felt different.

"I don't think it is." I frowned. Nothing about this felt like a trap. The fact that Crosshair would reach out to us at all from using Empire comm systems was a risk in itself. Not to mention he'd warned us away, rather than trying to draw us in. "It's nothing like the trap he used against the others on Kamino."