STEALTH and TRACK: BOOK ONE

C H A P T E R F O U R

THIRD PERSON POV

Across the bench sat Hunter, Omega, Fern, and Echo in that order. Wrecker reclined on the floor, propping up his upper body with his arms behind him. Tech also was seated on the bench, but a few feet down from everyone else. His foot was tapping as he profusely pondered over an escape plan.

Fern noticed Omega's mimicking behavior that she had displayed with her earlier - now with Hunter. The sergeant started with his right leg resting on his left knee, leaning back with hands behind his head. He then lowered said leg and propped his chin up with his right hand on his right knee; finally, he placed said hand down, all while glancing over and noticing the young girl copying every one of those movements. It seemed to amuse Hunter, but Fern rolled her eyes at the scene playing out.

The young girl read the tension between the two adult clones; both were avoiding eye contact with one another. "You two don't like each other very much, do you?" she asked blatantly. 

Wrecker whistled at the awkward silence that followed and scooted himself away from the situation.

"You are a perceptive one, aren't you." Fern groaned, tightening her knotted arms. "It's also none of your business."

"I agree with Fern on that matter, Kid." Hunter shook his head. "It's just a complicated mishap during a mission that involved us."

"Is that what you're calling it?" Fern scoffed, putting Hunter on the defense. "What would you call it then? If both of us had done our jobs, everything would have worked out in the end."

"You're wrong, and you know it." Fern jumped to her feet, and Hunter followed suit. Omega leaned back in their shadows with eyes wide open. "I did my job. You were the one who failed to communicate."

"You left your post and allowed the Separatists to pass through! I had to come find you outside the bomb shelter."

"Um, guys?" Omega recovered her posture and began to reach out to the two arguing clones, but Echo extended his human hand across and stopped her. "It's no use." Echo sighed, hanging his head.

"The Separatists had already arrived. I had heard nothing from you!" Fern's shouts were escalating with every word. She stomped closer to Hunter until they were toe to toe, sizing herself up to him by puffing her chest out and arching her neck back. "I thought you were dead! I rendezvoused back to the base because I was alone! Did you expect me to wait around so droids could surround me?!"

"You should've stuck to the plan!" Hunter matched her volume, towering himself over her.

"I did!"

"You didn't!"

"I got it!" Tech sprang up from his seat in the far corner. While Hunter and Fern had been bickering, he had composed a plan of escape. He then brought it upon himself to separate the two with his body. "If you two are done debating the past, I finally thought of something in an unforgiving amount of time." As Hunter and Fern breathed heavily, the latter fell back in anger.

"Ugh!" she growled with her teeth clenched, clawing the air between them. "You are so infuriating!" She then huffed and spoke in a low voice. "This is why I am not part of your squad, nor will I ever be... After we escape Kamino, the instant we land on another planet, I want out..."

Hunter closed his eyes for a moment. "Fine. Do whatever you want." He then turned to Tech next to him to discuss the intellectual clone's plan.

Meanwhile, Fern turned away from the Batch, her face flaring up so much she was on the verge of tears. All she wanted to do was scream. She only managed to cool down through heaving deep breaths and repeating their coincidentally-mutual goal in her head. She felt calm enough to rejoin the others, just in time for Tech to call her over.