Astera:
The clone assassin was just like the first one we'd encountered, standard military haircut, free of any identifiable markings, dressed in nondescript dark armour. He raised his head with a glare as we entered the room, eyes passing over all of us before finally settling on Crosshair. Shocked recognition lightened the baleful expression, a recognition mirrored by the sniper at the back of the room.
"We need to leave. Now."
"If you want answers so badly, why aren't you asking him?" Six pairs of eyes, including the clone on guard, turned on Crosshair when the operative spoke, his glare deepening at his next words. "Right, brother?"
"He's lying," Crosshair spat out, but he seemed visibly shaken by the clone's reaction to him. Something Howzer picked up on too - his hand drifted for the blaster at his hip, settling on it with a determined click.
"Enough." I exhaled and let my mind drift out with a raised hand, feeling for the clone's life force and tapping into the power that would suffuse my command and let me nudge his mind in the right direction. "You will tell us the location of the Tantiss Base."
The clone went rigid as soon as I passed my hand over his face, gritting his teeth and glaring at me defiantly. I frowned - even the best of clones weren't able to resist a mind trick. Maybe his conditioning had made him more resistant. I closed my eyes instead, holding my hand out and my mind pressing harder on his to force it to give way. "You will tell us the location of the Tantiss base."
The extra burst of power had my voice taking on that shadowy effect I remembered from Cad Bane's interrogation years ago, adding layers to it and the words echoing in the small room. A vein pulsed in the clone's neck and he grunted, almost in pain, but he still refused to speak,
"You will tell us the location of the Tantiss base!"
A choked gurgling sound erupted from his mouth, the clone's eyes rolling back in his head and his body thrashing against his restraints. Any longer and I'd probably cause irreparable damage to his brain - I dropped my hand and broke the connection, his muscles instantly relaxing and his body sagging against the chair. Thread immediately moved to check on him, light fingers pressing the pulse point at his wrist and retrieving a bacta injector from his medic's kit.
"I've never seen this before." Even Bane hadn't reacted so badly to three of the strongest Jedi I'd known using the mind trick on him. "Whatever they did to him must have made his mind stronger to that kind of pressure."
"I told you Hemlock was smarter than that," Crosshair hissed, already reaching for the door's controls. "There are safeguards so they won't talk! We need to leave."
"You're right about one thing." I had no idea how the clone recovered so quickly - the strain of resisting a mind trick like that should have incapacitated him for hours at least even with a bacta shot - but the operative raised his head, his attention fixed on Crosshair and I most of all. "They are coming. For all of you."
The distant sounds of explosions from outside obscured his dark chuckle, and we all turned for the closed doorway, my senses expanding outward automatically, just in time to feel the sparks of several more clone lives snuffed out by another detonation from outside. We were under attack.
Rex activated for his comm, only to hiss out a breath when he was met with nothing but static. "Comms are down." The operative laughed again from behind us, the look in his eyes cruel and all too knowing. He said they were coming. It had to be the Empire, and Rex seemed to realise that too. "We move out. Now!"
Howzer jabbed the door's controls, a blaster already in hand, only to immediately jerk back and dive for cover when the first of the red bolts sliced through the air right in front of him. I thought he'd gotten lucky with the shot missing him, until I glanced back and registered the clone operative slumped unmoving in his chair, smoke curling from the blaster wound in his torso. Howzer hadn't been the shooter's target at all. The operative was.
"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.
"There's always another way." Batcher sniffed the hole and barked enthusiastically, looking back at us as though to confirm the hole's authenticity. I shook my head with an amused snort - Rex was nothing if not always prepared. Too many years of serving with Anakin and Ahsoka as commanding officers meant he'd had to be.
Rex went down the ladder first as Wrecker dragged another pile of crates towards our escape route, the rest of us following him to a spiralling staircase built into the spire itself. The monks that had previously inhabited the place must have constructed it before they'd abandoned the place
"Our leech vessel is docked about ten levels down," Rex informed us quietly
"Doesn't have a hyperdrive though," Howzer interjected. "We won't get far."
"No, but we can use it to contact Echo." It was the only plan we had, and no one argued when we took off down the staircase,
For once, we made it down the ten levels with no interference, Rex pausing in front of one of several identical doorways set into the walls. "The ship's docked just down this corridor."
"Stop." Crosshair barked out just before he could open the door, tilting his head and staring at the open alcove calculatingly. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but I'd learned that Crosshair's intuition was rarely ever wrong - I pushed out my senses as he moved for the alcove, instantly registering several presences a few levels below us, stomping up the steps and moving fast. They'd caught up with us already.
"What is it?" Nemec asked as Crosshair moved for the alcove, peering over the edge and clearly registering something from below. That familiar knot that always constricted my chest whenever the Empire was near had returned, completely obstructing my ability to speak. Even just keeping my breathing normal took effort, but I forced myself to regulate it anyway - this was not the time for the anxiety to return.
"They're coming." No sooner than Crosshair had said the words, he was forced to jerk back as two bolts pierced the stone of the alcove in rapid succession. I'd been so caught up in the presence of the troopers that I'd completely missed the sniper above us, dangling off a grappling line and making his way down for us.
"I'll handle it." We left Crosshair at the alcove, following Rex once again into a small hollowed out space that was clearly serving as some kind of storage room. An exit had been carved out at the back to accommodate their leech vessel, the doors of which promptly slid open as we got within range.
Rex booted up the ship as soon as Crosshair and Wrecker dashed onto it, lights powering on with a high pitched whine. I took a seat next to Omega, the girl snatching up a pack of supplies from her own chair and examining the smoke grenades stacked up within.
"Ah! Get down!" Batcher was on Thread as soon as he took his helmet off, paws on his legs and licking his face despite the clone's best attempts to push her off him. "Off!"
"Don't worry," Omega reassured him with a grin. "She only bites half of the time."
"Great." Thread didn't look so thrilled, but he was more or less resigned to the dog's friendly attacks, which weren't stopping any time soon.
"You see what we have to deal with?" At least someone else was on the other side of it. Batcher was cute enough, but cleaning dog slobber off my face and armour was starting to get a little old. Not that I would ever say it to Omega, of course. She would defend Batcher against anything.
"Prepare to launch!" Rex disengaged the docking clamps, the ship unlocking from the side of the spire and flying out of the crevice it was stashed in. I watched the monastery rise up in the transparisteel windows, still faintly burning orange and black smoke trailing into the sky before the ship turned away, heading for the coordinates Rex had told us was the extraction point.
We didn't get far before the ship jolted and dropped from its flight path, warning alarms blaring and red lights flickering on the console as the front of it tilted downwards into a nosedive for the forest. I didn't need to see the display to know the engines had been blown out. We were going down.
"Remora-one, we've been compromised! Heading to Marker Zero-two-five for an extraction!" Rex yelled into his long distance comms, abandoning all attempts to steer the ship and only trying to control its downward plunge towards the ground. "Repeat. Marker Zero-two-five. We're going down!" He yelled at us, fumbling to take our seats again and clip the straps together before the inevitable impact. "Strap in!"
By some miracle, the vessel didn't explode or rip itself apart when it crashed into the first of the trees, tearing through branches and carving a deep gouge into the dirt as it skidded along. Even so, my body jarred heavily and my head snapped backwards, the back of my helmet clanging hard against the wall. I clutched the edges of my seat harder and ignored the throbbing that flared up immediately, teeth gritted to stop myself from biting my tongue or cheek.
Inertia carried the ship for what had to be at least a klick before it finally, mercifully, slowed and came to a stop in the middle of the jungle, a mess of vines obscuring most of the view from the cockpit windows. I groaned and lifted my head, the clones around me all doing the same as Wrecker stumbled for the opening of the ship. He promptly collapsed as soon as it was open, only his grunts letting me know he was still conscious. Batcher bounded outside, the only one of us to look no worse for wear as Omega shakily unclipped her straps and followed Wrecker outside to help him up.
"Why is it every time I fly with the 501st, we crash?" I swayed unsteadily when I tried to stand and automatically reached for Hunter, curling an arm around his upper arm to stabilise myself. "You're just as bad as Anakin was, Rex."
"Very funny," He responded drolly, pulling out both blasters to check for damage as we moved for the exit as well, Hunter extending his hand towards me to help me out of the ship.
"Are you hurt?" He didn't let go of my hand even after I'd stepped out of the wreckage, checking me over for any visible damage. I shook my head, rolling out my bad shoulder experimentally - apart from the joint twinging a little and a few sore spots that were probably forming bruises, there was nothing out of the ordinary. None of the others seemed hurt either. We'd gotten lucky.
"Shoulder's a little tight, but I'll be fine. You?"
"Nothing permanent," he said, finally releasing my hand with a satisfied nod. I couldn't help but smile at him a little, forgetting he couldn't see it, and headed for Omega, comforting Batcher with a vigilant Crosshair on guard.
"You... good?" Concern was a foreign look on Crosshair; the words sounded awkward even as he said them, like he was unsure of what to say.
"Uh-huh." She didn't even look up, too busy rubbing Batcher's head. Too many months of the same sort of questions from Hunter and I and now she was completely unfazed by them. Not that it stopped him from asking them.
"Got your crossbow?"
"Yup."
"Sure you can carry those supplies?"
"Yes." This time she finally turned to him, a hint of exasperation bleeding into her tone as she stared indignantly up at him. It had no effect on him at all though, the sniper finally straightening and levelling his visor at her.
"Stay close. It's easy to get lost in this terrain."
"You're as bad as Hunter and Astera."
"Oh, I'm much worse."
"You wish." I snorted from Batcher's other side, patting the dog's head briefly before addressing her. "Good to go, kid?"
She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to make another exasperated remark, only to be interrupted by Rex, unhooking a blaster from his belt and pointing to the north.
"Echo should meet us at the extraction point. "We'll have to continue on foot."
"How far?"
"Five klicks north," Nemec answered Hunter's question, already starting in that direction. I made to follow, only to pause when the distant sounds of airborne transports reached my ears, senses still enhanced with the Force.
"Hunter, you hear that too?" My chest squeezed as though in response to the presence of the transports, hands automatically creeping towards my belt. Whether I was reaching for my blasters or my lightsabers, I wasn't entirely sure, I just needed the comforting weight of one of my weapons. To reassure myself I could fight back if needed.
He nodded, turning back to stare up at the deep purple sky. "We've got attack shuttles inbound."
"This way." Rex waved an arm and hurried little faster into the trees with Howzer, Thread and Nemec right behind him, using the thick canopy as cover from the probing headlights the transports were most likely using to scour the area.