STEALTH and TRACK: BOOK ONE

C H A P T E R F O R T Y-N I N E

THIRD PERSON POV

The clones hiked in full sprint up the inclined terrace pipe that loomed over the embryo room. AZI the medical service droid followed closely to Omega. Fern watched as the sea water rapidly swallowed up the towers that habited the thousands of empty capsules, where hundreds of thousands of regular clones had been incubated. However, there was no time to stop and lament the end of the clone era—They all had to hurry if they were going to survive this catastrophe. The entire complex rumbled, endangering the possibility of one slip could lead to one's demise.

What they were all aware of was the dome had completely submerged and was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The ear-shattering creaking signaled that the structure of shifting its colossal weight from horizontally to vertically—making the incline, a decline.

"Hang on to something!" Hunter shouted, and shrouded Omega against the railing. Fern wrapped her arms around the banister on the opposite side, embracing herself as her legs dangled. Crosshair's hold was broken when a metal pipe crashed next to his head, and he would've dropped into the abyss if Fern hadn't miraculously snatched his wrist mid-fall. Even though her arms strained from his weight, the crook of her right arm hooked over a rafter and was the only thing suspending her and Crosshair, she refused to give in to the absolute terror wracking her thoughts. Everyone grunted and gasped as they endured the last moments of the dome finally settling and leveling itself in its final resting place.

"Is everyone alright?" the sergeant asked.

"I believe we have landed on the ocean floor." Tech deduced. "There is no way to accurately calculate the damage."

"You don't say?" Fern rolled her eyes, then realized she still had an iron-grip on Crosshair's wrist. She released and yanked her hand back, perhaps too quickly.

"Most of the facility must be—" Tech continued his ramble when an explosion from above quaked the whole structure around them. Water leaked in like a shower from the abrased ceiling. "...compromised."

"We are not safe here." Fern stepped in. "We need to get somewhere that's not this dome."

"Tech, is there somewhere more secure?" Hunter asked. The spectacled clone calculated on his datapad and responded with, "Follow me." A few corridors later, Wrecker ripped open the panel door to a familiar room...

"Ironically, our old barracks is one of the few compartments habitable, albeit temporarily."

"This is Clone Force 99's old barracks?" Fern scoffed, scanning the empty space minus the random furnished pieces. The murky, midnight-green ocean shimmered through the massive viewport spanning the back wall, its illusional waves projected across the floor and solid walls. "I don't recognize it without all that junk that littered the place." Her eyes fell over her right shoulder. "Well, what do we have here? They didn't remove those mission marks you guys recorded from the panel." She brushed her fingers over the sliced etches with a smirk.

"Aha!" Wrecker grinned proudly as his eyes followed the marks from top to bottom next to her. She smiled up at the whole-hearted clone and rubbed his armored forearm.

"All those missions together..." Crosshair sneered from the doorway. "and you threw it all away." 

Before Fern could object, Hunter beat her to it, whipping around, his torch shining onto the sharpshooter's grimaced face. "We made a choice, and so did you."

"Soldiers follow orders." He stepped towards the sergeant, and Fern prepared herself to intervene, her fingers rested on her knife's hilt. 

"Blind allegiance makes you a pawn." Hunter countered. "A real leader protects his squad."