Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

89:

"We got a shooter out here!" Wrecker yelled from behind the stack of crates he and Omega were using as cover. I jammed my helmet on and activated my lightsabers, charging out as he popped out over the top to unleash a barrage onto the shooter's hiding place. Hunter shouted something in warning from behind me, but I ignored it, deflecting a bolt coming for my chest and diving for cover next to Omega.

"Shots coming from the back of the room!" she called out, hunched down low behind her crate and her new energy crossbow in one hand. More blaster fire from the shooter was peppering the air above our heads - a sniper from the sounds of his gun. And an accurate one at that.

"Nemec, we need to get comms online!" Rex instructed the clone next to him. Nemec nodded and raised his blaster, peering out from around the corner in wait for his best opening.

"I'll cover him!" I leapt onto the command table, yellow blades drawing the fire of the sniper and easily deflecting them back as Nemec crept out from behind his cover and got to work on the console. The blaster fire hesitated for a second as soon as I was out in the open, before starting up again, now completely concentrated on me.

It was too dark to see exactly where he was, but the flash of his bolts was enough for me to pinpoint his general location at the back of the room and send the shots back in his direction. He seemed to realise he'd get nowhere shooting at me - his next shot punctured the wiring that powered the entire table, electricity crackling over it with a high pitched whine that didn't sound good at all.

It was going to blow. My eyes widened at the realisation and I dived off the table, tackling Nemec away just as it blew up behind us.

Heat seared my back as the explosion threw Nemec and I across the room in opposite directions, sending me rolling towards where the clones still crouched under cover and Nemec colliding into another stack of crates further away. Hunter's hands underneath my arms were already dragging me behind the crates before I could do so much as groan, the look he directed at me disapproving even with his helmet on.

"Backup plan. Into the command post! I'll cover you!" Rex pointed the room out and I forced myself to struggle into a crouch, several spots on my body smarting from the knock it had taken. There was no time to recover though, as we were moving again at Rex's next shout, into the command room and watching Rex surge out to grab Nemec still on the ground. Fireball powered on a flamethrower and charged forward, straight for the assassin's hiding place and leaving himself wide open to more blaster fire.

A bolt caught him in the shoulder and he collapsed, knocking over a crate stacked with thermal detonators. Whatever happened next was obscured by the table - all I could see was the resulting colourful explosions that rocked the ancient monastery's very foundations, huge chunks of rock breaking apart and raining down on top of the equipment Rex had worked so hard to build underneath the Empire's nose.

The clone captain was forced to turn back and dive into the command post with us before he was crushed under falling rubble, just before another large boulder dropped down behind him, sealing off the open doorway and plunging us all into darkness.

My torch clicked on only after the rumbling had stopped, searching immediately for Hunter to check on him. Batcher nudged Rex from the ground, the clone stirring with a groan and a coughing Omega getting up to pull him to his feet with Crosshair. Of all the regs that had been in this base, only four had apparently survived the explosions - Rex, Howzer, Nemec and Thread.

"Thanks." He pressed a hand to his temple and rolled out his shoulders, shaking off the effects of the explosion. "We need to get moving before their reinforcements get here."

"Is there another way off this spire?" Hunter asked him. Rex only chuckled and moved to the back of the room, planting his boot on a crate and shoving it away to reveal a crudely dug passageway underneath it.