Astera:
Hunter and Crosshair were thrown off their feet by the force of the wyrm's eruption, bellowing to the sky and its body thumping down hard on the ground again. Ice splintered under its weight, spreading quickly and destabilising the surface - the packed snow underneath the Remora groaned and sank inwards, the ship's weight too much for the broken surface to hold up.
The two clones scrambled to their feet and started to run for the compound, The wyrm screeched again and dived under the surface, thick ridges rapidly appearing where it gave chase after them. Hunter and Crosshair had a head start on the wyrm, but it was a lot faster than they were, and the gap was rapidly closing.
"Hurry!" Echo waved a frenzied arm, Batcher hurtling inside the outpost with Crosshair and Hunter hot on her heels. The storm of ice and snow kicked up by its movements was also right behind them, looming above them and threatening to swallow them both at any second.
I threw up my palms as the two of them dived in, the Force rushing out in a rippling wave and forcing the wyrm back just enough for Wrecker to force the doors shut with a squeal.
It slammed head first into the doors a second later with a screech of pain, the loud bang echoing off the walls and shaking the entire compound once again as dust rained from the ceiling and the lights flickered. Somehow my muscles locked down even further, the clones around me adopting similar tense positions
"I guess we know what the perimeter sensors are meant to keep out," Omega said nervously, just as the wyrm slammed into it for a second time. The structure rattled violently again, all of us stumbling to our knees as the lighting cut out completely and plunged us all into darkness. It had knocked out the power.
"Can't you calm it with your Jedi powers or something?" Wrecker demanded of me, thumped his own flashlight on with five others following suit and illuminating the faces of the clones around me. "Like you did on Kashyyyk?"
"That thing will eat me before I can get close enough to it!"
"Great. What now then?"
"No chance of digging out the ship with that thing out there." Hunter was already on his feet, a hand grasping my own and pulling me up as well as I dusted off my armour with the other hand. Echo nodded in agreement, already halfway to the terminal even as he said his words.
"We have to restore power to the sensor beacons." He didn't bother trying to turn it on from the terminal - the main power grid had likely been damaged in the wyrm's attack, and there was no way we were getting it online from inside the outpost. "There's a fuse box for the reserve energy grid in the back of this compound."
"One of us needs to get over there and reset the grid manually," Crosshair cut in.
Wrecker, as usual, was all too quick to volunteer. "I'll do it."
"And I can get the defence system reactivated once power's back!" Omega added, her arms around a still agitated Batcher and trying to calm her down.
"We'll have to draw the creature beyond the sensors before they reboot," Hunter said firmly, "or we'll be trapped inside the perimeter with that thing."
"I'll handle it." Crosshair and I spoke at the same time, glancing at each other in surprise. Why would he choose the most dangerous mission?
"Not alone. We'll do it together." In the urgency to deal with the wyrm, Hunter seemed to have forgotten his grievances with Crosshair - right now, they were just a team again, running a mission that needed to go right at all costs.
"You sure about that?" Crosshair's challenge seemed to remind him otherwise however, and Hunter scowled once again, displeasure once again back in place.
"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?"
I snorted, fighting the urge to respond in kind and closed my eyes instead, raising my arms and exhaling slowly. My mind extended out with the breath, feeling the wyrm's movements under the surface and waiting until it was close enough that he could hit it without fear of missing. Now.
I hauled my hands upwards, channelling another burst of power towards the wyrm and seizing hold of it with the Force. Snow exploded everywhere in a thick spray of white as the wyrm was forced to break the surface, thrashing against my invisible hold on it. My arms were already shaking from the effort of keeping something so strong immobile, but it did the trick just long enough for Crosshair to fire at it again, shots sinking into its horns, its tough outer hide, and the soft, fleshy part of its gaping mouth.
It bellowed in pain and flailed against my grip again, this time snapping free so violently I was thrown to the ground as it burrowed back under the surface. Crosshair stared after the new path it was forming, a hand at the side of his helmet as the wyrm dived even lower and promptly disappeared. "I think we just made it angrier."
"You think?" I shook snow off my armour and climbed back to my feet, ignoring his unimpressed look and starting back for the edge of the perimeter. We'd bought ourselves some time, but I had no idea how much, and I wanted to get Hunter out of the tunnel before it came back.
"Fantastic," Hunter grumbled back over the comms. Batcher barked from behind me, her longer stride easily overtaking mine and leaping ahead of me. The sensor beacons were now visible above the snow - we weren't too far from the outside. And hopefully that meant the wyrm was too.
"You're about four hundred metres from the perimeter," Crosshair informed Hunter, hurrying after Batcher and tracking the dog's movements towards the sensor beacons.
"No sign of that thing," Echo added on the channel. Batcher slowed as soon as she reached the sensor beacons, nose to the ground and sniffing around until she launched herself forward again, past the perimeter. Crosshair followed her again without a second thought - he was putting a lot of faith in a dog, but so far Batcher hadn't led us wrong yet.
She stopped suddenly, barking at us as though to get our attention, and started to dig, clearing away a small patch of snow that Crosshair immediately headed for. "We found a weak point in the ice. We'll try to dig through."
"You'll try?" Hunter demanded, clearly uninspired by Crosshair's confidence.
"Glad you heard me properly." He fired into the ice around the hole Batcher had made, slamming the butt of his rifle into the ice and cracking it on the second attempt. Too slow - the wyrm could be back before he could make a large enough hole.
"I've got it." I rolled my eyes and pushed him aside, igniting my lightsabers to stab them through the snow. The heat from my blades instantly melted the ice around it, making it all too easy to pull them downwards and cut a circle in the surface.
The disc of ice dropped into the wyrm's tunnels, the light from the sun casting a small patch of light into the otherwise dark caverns. There was no Hunter in sight, though his words on the comms told me he was still trying to outrun the wyrm.
"Things are getting close in here. Am I gonna have a way out or not?"
"If you end up where we hope you do," Crosshair replied grimly.
"Boom! Power's back online!" Now that I wasn't distracted by the wyrm, I could actually focus on the others' words on the comm - Wrecker had succeeded at restoring the power. Now we just needed to get the wyrm past the perimeter before the sensors activated again.
"Hunter, should I activate the beacon?" I could almost see Omega's hands on the button to power them on, waiting for his response.
"Wait! We have to make sure the wyrm is past the sensors."
"I'll draw it out." The thought of Hunter encountering the wyrm while he had no escape down there was enough to have me powering off my lightsabers, sprinting off before either him or Crosshair could make an objection. "You get Hunter up here!"
As soon as I was a good distance away, I skidded to a stop, sprays of snow kicking up under my heels, and inhaled deeply, gathering the Force in my palms as I drew them up, then slammed them downwards, blasting out a shockwave that rippled through the snow, ice cracking loudly as it went. I could almost hear the screech of the wyrm as it felt the vibrations and changed direction, heading directly for me rather than Hunter.
"That'll do it," Crosshair commented dryly, his form distantly visible and still firing into the snow to further widen the hole I'd cut in the ice. I wasn't done though, yellow blades springing to life again and tips dragging along the ground, sweeping them around and generally making the biggest show of it that I could. Whatever would get that thing's attention for sure. "Get up here!" He shouted down to Hunter - I could only assume Hunter had reached the gap we'd created in the snow.
"Not yet! Where's the wyrm? I can't find it!"
The ground around me rumbled the instant I heard Hunter's words on my comm, familiar ridges of snow circling around my feet. I had two seconds to leap clear of the zone before it erupted from the ground with a deafening bellow, raining chunks of snow on my head and flailing its own about crazily."It's past the perimeter!"
"Omega, activate the sensors!" Crosshair yelled, Hunter's head appearing from the ground next to him a second later. He had Hunter, and now it was time to run.
"Bringing them online now!" The only sign that Omega had actually done so were the red flickering lights that activated on the sensor closest to us, a low pitched hum only barely audible from where I was.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" I'd already closed most of the distance between us, the wyrm giving chase on the surface and approaching fast. They both broke into a sprint just as I reached them, the three of us and Batcher dashing for the perimeter beacons as the packed snow splintered further under our feet, the cracks racing ahead of us. Panic flashed through me - if it broke apart, there was nothing between us and that wyrm. It would get to us before we had a chance to get back to our feet.
The thought had me instinctively drawing on the Force, shoving my hands forward and blowing the two clones and the lurca hound off their feet, past the perimeter, where they tumbled into the snow. Safely out of range of the splitting ice.
The wyrm was at my heels now and I could feel its mouth gaping wide behind me - Hunter and Crosshair had already twisted for me, arms outstretched and ready to pull me over if I could grab hold of them. I dived for their hands, both of them yanking me across the invisible border just as the wyrm's teeth snapped shut on the space I'd just been.
The thick cloud of snow dust it had kicked up enveloped us, completely shrouding us in the flurry of white and obscuring everything from view. I shakily rose on one knee, panting hard and removing my helmet to stare at the dark shadow of the wyrm, screeching plaintively on the other side of the beacon and refusing to come any closer to it. Batcher planted herself between us and the creature, barking in challenge and her tail twitching from side to side but also wisely avoiding crossing the border.
With a final howl, the wyrm lurched away and disappeared back underground, presumably to find some other unlucky prey for food. Satisfied that she had successfully protected us from the giant angry creature, Batcher trotted back to us with her tongue lolling out of her mouth, nuzzling against Crosshair's hand. He was only half paying attention to her - he was otherwise focused on Hunter, a beat of silent understanding passing between the two of them and they nodded at each other before Hunter turned his gaze on me, the accusation clear on his face. I just collapsed backwards into the snow, too tired to do much more than breathe.
The other three were already waiting for us when we finally gathered enough energy to get up and walk back to the outpost, feet dragging and otherwise clear exhaustion tugging at us. Wrecker was running for us as soon as he caught sight of our heads, and I knew exactly what he was coming over for.
I sidestepped him just as he got within range - Hunter and Crosshair took the brunt of his hug instead, pulling them close together before either of them could do anything about it. The look of absolute shock on both their faces was so comical it actually had me snorting out a real laugh, bracing my hands on my knees and watching them share a wide eyed glance but being completely unable to do anything about it until Wrecker let go of them.
"Finally got that hug you wanted?" Crosshair rolled his eyes at my remark but said nothing, almost seeming pleased with the fact Wrecker had accepted him back so readily.
******
Between my lifting with the Force and some good old-fashioned shovels on the Batch's end, we were able to get Echo's ship onto reasonably solid ground before the sun had started to set over the horizon. All too eager to get out of here, Echo was already priming the ship's navicomputer and the engines, Omega poring over the intel he'd managed to extract from Nala Se's datapad and Wrecker stowing away the shovels they'd used to dig out the ship. Hunter and Crosshair were the only ones still outside, and I headed for the landing ramp to tell them we were ready to go.
"I've done things," Crosshair admitted quietly from outside, words faint but still discernible. I paused just before the ship's entrance, seeing him staring out to the mountains with Hunter at the bottom of the landing ramp. So they'd finally decided to talk it out. "I've made mistakes."
"I have regrets too, Crosshair," Hunter told him "All we can do is keep trying to be better. And who knows? There just might be hope for us yet."
He turned and made his way up the landing ramp, looking almost surprised when he saw me waiting for him inside, arms crossed and tone threaded with light amusement.
"There, see, was that so hard now?"
"Don't start." He snagged my waist and tugged me closer to kiss me, though he was frowning when he pulled away, like he'd just remembered something. "You put yourself in a lot of danger out there, you know."
"It was you guys or me." I shrugged, schooling my expression into something that hopefully wouldn't resemble guilt. "I chose you."
"That wasn't a choice you needed to make. We had time."
I shifted uncomfortably - it hadn't ended well the last time I'd thought we had time. But I wasn't going to tell him that. That particular conversation was one we'd had too many times with the same outcome each time. "It all worked out though," I said with a breezy smile in an attempt to divert the conversation. "It's fine."
He frowned at me, clearly unconvinced, but said nothing, the landing ramp closing behind us as we ascended the steps into the ship.