Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

86:

"And I'll spot you both from the tower," Echo hastened to cut in, in an effort to break the tension rising between them again. He shot a knowing look at me, one I returned with a barely suppressed sigh. At this rate, I was going to have to keep them from killing each other rather than the wyrm.

"Then let's get to it," Hunter said finally, tearing his mistrustful gaze away from Crosshair and snatching up his helmet from the console. "Before it tears this place apart."

We readied ourselves at the door, blasters out while Wrecker slowly pried the doors apart again. The wyrm had given up attacking the base, but it was still out there. I could sense it lurking, just waiting for us even as I watched Hunter's raised hand slowly count us down.

The instant his fist dropped, we were off, Hunter sprinting across the snow with Crosshair and I, Echo and Wrecker dashing to the left of the compound. Just as I'd thought, the wyrm had been lying in wait for us along the side of the outpost - as soon as we were out in the open, it gave chase, its movements easily trackable under the ice.

"Three o'clock!" I skidded to a stop at Crosshair's call, blue bolts from both our weapons plugging the rapidly shifting snow as it swerved for a still moving Hunter. It burst out from the surface, maw gaping wide and snapping for Hunter. He dived through its jaws, rolling to his feet a few metres away, and the frustrated wyrm plunged back into the snow with another shriek, circling away to prepare for another attempt. 

The ice groaned under Hunter's feet and he hopped backwards, eyeing the surface apprehensively. The impact of his landing cracked the already unstable ground, and it collapsed in on itself, unable to support itself any longer. And taking him with it.

"Hunter!" Before I knew it, I was running towards the spot where Hunter had disappeared, ready to leap down the hole after him, only for Crosshair to grab my shoulder and pull me back before I could make the jump. "Don't touch me." I snarled, whirling on him and shoving him back. Wrecker yelled something into the comms, but I ignored it, too focused on glaring at Crosshair to even respond. I may have been trying for Omega's sake, but he wasn't about to stop me from helping Hunter. "I'm going after him."

"It's too dangerous." His visor levelled coolly on me, infuriatingly unruffled despite the hostility emanating off me in waves. "Hunter can handle himself."

"I'm not just leaving him down there with that thing!"

"Don't let your emotions blind you."

Another angry response was already rising in my throat, but I quelled it, glaring at him obstinately instead. As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. So I reluctantly turned my attention into the small gap in the ice, calling down to Hunter as he slowly got to his feet. "Can you get outside the perimeter from down there?"

"I'll follow the tunnel north!" He shouted back up, glancing around whatever cavern he'd dropped into. "Find out!"

"We'll track you from up here!" Crosshair was already up again with Batcher at his feet - the dog must have caught up while I'd been distracted - both of them tracking Hunter's trajectory without waiting for me to catch up. I rolled my eyes at his back but followed, senses extending into the snow to feel for his presence.

"Target spotted," Echo reported into the comms suddenly. "It's right on your tail. About a hundred metres and closing."

"Got it." Crosshair paused again and turned back to fire on the approaching wyrm's path. His first shot missed it completely, and I heard him hiss out a breath, shaking his hand out. "You want to help out here?"