Astera:
Nala Se's laboratory would be our watery grave. Whether the oxygen ran out and we suffocated, or the sea dragon came back and managed to drown us first. I wasn't sure which one I'd prefer more. Either way, our bodies would be forgotten down here, lost to the wreckage of Tipoca City. For now, I was content to wander the lab, exploring it like I would somehow turn up another way of escape for all eight of us.
AZI twitched, flashlight eyes flickering and dimming as his inner machinery whined, head dropping forward like he had no more energy to keep it aloft. Omega reached out for the medical droid, propping his head up. "AZI, what's wrong?"
"My battery cells are depleting." The words were slow, almost lethargic. "I apologise for the inconvenience."
Echo unplugged from the scomp link at the far wall, shaking his head as he crossed the floor to report to us. "Long range comms are down. And our oxygen levels will be critical in a few hours."
Oxygen shortage it was then. I doubted the sea dragon would come back in a few hours, having been thoroughly deterred by AZI's nasty shock to its mouth. Death by slow suffocation. At least most of us would pass out before that. A small mercy, if anything.
"This is what happens when you let a kid call the shots." Crosshair glared accusingly at Omega, the guilt and hurt on the girl's expression showing clear as day.
"That kid helped save your life," I snarled out, jabbing a finger into his chest. Behind me, Hunter snorted incredulously.
"Unlike the Empire that left you for dead."
Crosshair brushed past me, entirely ignoring me once again to get in Hunter's face. "That's your problem, Hunter. You take things too personally."
"They destroyed an entire city."
"They did what needed to be done." He believed wholly in each word he said - I could see it like I had in the training room. "Kamino, the regs, the Republic... That time is over. The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I am going to be a part of it. Hunter, you made the wrong choice."
He pushed past the other clone, heading for the window at the far side of the room. The rest of us stared after him,
"Don't fool yourself. All you'll ever be to them is a number." Crosshair paused momentarily at Hunter's words - the only sign that he had actually heard him - before moving again without a word, taking a heavy seat beneath the window.
Movement beside me caught my eye - Omega, trotting after Crosshair to sit by him. I couldn't make out their words from here, though I didn't need to to tell Crosshair's hostility had not relented. They had only exchanged a few words before Omega stood again and walked away from him, too dejected to even be angry.
"Wrecker, come pick this up." Echo stared at a medical capsule on the ground, light from his torch reflecting off the transparisteel. The larger clone complied, lifting the large tube upright with a grunt, a good half a metre taller than him. Perfect for holding a couple of clones each. And a Jedi. "These medical capsules are our way out of here."
"If our mass is evenly distributed," Tech input the calculations into his datapad, "the buoyancy of these watertight chambers will bring us to the surface."
"Medical capsules have not been tested for such capabilities," AZI interjected, forcing his way into the middle of the group.
Hunter eyed the capsule warily. "We won't have directional control. How will we avoid the debris field out there?"
"The droid." I jolted at the sound of Crosshair's voice behind me, twitching aside out of instinct as he appeared at my shoulder. "He can do it."
Hunter ignored him, addressing the medical droid directly. "AZI, can you get us to the surface?"
"Barring any extraneous circumstances, I should be able to complete the task." The sluggishness in his automated voice was worrying, but he was a droid. If anything was capable of determining their own limits, it was droids.
"Won't that be dangerous?" Omega objected, the droid spinning and drifting closer to her as if to reassure her.
"Your safety and wellbeing is my primary mission objective." Those words seemed to make Hunter's decision for him, as he immediately began to direct us, Omega and AZI laying out the thermal charges on the window, while the rest of us set the medical pods into the niches in the wall, ready for AZI to send us to the surface.
"I barely fit in this thing!" Wrecker complained with a groan as he pressed himself into a capsule, arms tucked in tight to his chest.
"Quit complaining," Echo retorted, gesturing to the pod he would soon be crammed into with Tech. "At least you're not doubled up."
"The explosives are set." Omega hopped into the last pod with me, five blinking yellow lights on the window in front of us confirming her words. She held up the detonator, already primed and ready to go.
"All right. Seal 'em up." I reached around the younger girl to press the button at Hunter's order, the panel of transparisteel sliding over the opening and cutting us off from AZI. The droid's already dim eyes flickered again before he drifted to the very side of the room, signalling he was ready. Omega watched him the entire way, measured concern visible on her face.
"AZI will be fine," I told her quietly, the girl's gaze darting up to me briefly, seeking my reassurance, before facing the window again, eyes closing and taking a deep breath. Preparing herself.
She clicked the button, and the window exploded everywhere.
The onslaught of water was so powerful it knocked the pods out of their fastenings, the resulting current so strong it instantly sucked us out of the room, all four pods already pulled towards the surface. We were out of control, pod spinning end over end and banging into sinking debris around us. It was dizzying - I couldn't even concentrate enough to call on the Force and stabilise us.
Outside, all I could see was AZI's bright beams for eyes, darting around the capsules and directing them out of the way of oncoming rubble. The other three were already clear and floating to the surface; the droid dived down for us now, beginning to pull our pod upwards.
"You're doing great, AZI," Omega called up encouragingly, offering up a smile to the droid. He didn't respond, eyes flickering again as he peered at us in the pod, determining that we were still unharmed.
None of us saw the bar of metal until it was too late.
Omega was thrown into me with a scream, both of us slamming into the wall of the tube. Cracks spiderwebbed over the other side, the weight of the metal pinning us under it and taking us down with it.
The Force was already gathered up in me; I shoved it against the debris, the beam shifting reluctantly with a screeching rasp. Not enough - the edge of it was still on top of us and dragging down the pod. AZI had appeared again, both hands taking hold of the edge of the metal and hauling at it, his thrusters beginning to fail. Again. I had to try again.
The second attempt forced the metal the rest of the way with another shriek, the bar dropping away and freeing us from the downward spiral. AZI grabbed hold of the bottom of our capsule, one final burst from his thrusters propelling us to the surface.
"Omega, Ashe, what's happening?"
"We got caught on some debris. It's okay. AZI's got us." Omega turned to check on the droid while I answered Hunter, the relief instantly turning to cold dread on her face as his boosters sputtered, one eye winking out entirely. His power was almost gone. Both of us knew that. We would make it to the surface, but it didn't seem likely that AZI would as well.
"Don't give up," she pleaded anyway, laying a hand on the transparisteel separating them. "We're nearly there, AZI. Don't give up."
"Your path is clear," he replied simply, words distorting with the failing of his power. "I have completed my objective."
"No!" Omega screamed when the light in his eyes died completely, pounding on the transparisteel with both fists as the droid seized up and let go of our capsule, the water's movement and his own weight carrying him downwards, back towards the lab we had just escaped. "I'm going after AZI!"
"Omega, don't!" She punched the button, cutting off the rest of my shout as water rushed in, hurling me back against the wall of the tube. I batted away at the bubbles filling my vision, seeing only Omega's flashlight spin away into the depths of the water. The pod was already sinking - I kicked myself clear of it, following the trail of downward bubbles that had to be Omega.
She had already grabbed hold of AZI, futilely tugging on his arm. His weight was too much for her - the droid dragging her down with her no matter how much she heaved at his arm, already coughing as the pressure of the ocean threatened to crush her lungs. I'd almost caught up with them, one hand reaching for her flailing free arm.
I couldn't drag them both up with me, not with their combined weight and my injured shoulder. She'd never forgive me if I left the droid behind; even then, I doubted she would make it to the surface before her lungs completely gave out and she inhaled water.
The Force. I could use it to get them both up there. If I could gather enough focus, I'd be able to draw on the Force, push them upwards. It would be enough to get them to the surface. She could take my helmet - the oxygen filter would buy her a couple more minutes to reach the surface. Her eyes were beginning to flutter shut - I needed to act fast.
I inhaled one final breath and dragged the helmet off my head, the pressure of the ocean fighting against me every step of the way, and forced it onto her head, the filter already activated. She gasped, coughing starting up again and beginning to struggle against me as I gathered the last of my power and hauled both of them up, shoulder shrieking in pain. I could hear her screams - unable to pick out the individual words, but I knew what she was saying.
Both hands pushed her away, ignoring her reaching hands and invisible Force propelling them to the surface at twice the speed the capsules had gone up. The strength of the push drove me backwards, deeper into the depths of the ocean, the weight of my armour dragging me down further.
She was still fighting the Force driving her to the surface, reaching for me, but the pressure did not let up, the distance between us increasing with every passing second. My lungs were already bursting for air - still I resisted the urge to gasp, determined to ensure that she would make it. She had to.
It was only when I saw her reach the surface that I let the ocean take me, making no move to fight it as my eyes closed and I sank down into the depths of Kamino's oceans. Omega was safe. That was all that mattered.