Doomsday

Chapter 2 - Aftermath

It's predictable that Echo, who isn't used to these scuffles, is the first one knocked out, which ended the fight pretty fast before the Kaminoans could come put an end to it themselves. "Admiral Tarkin's here," Echo tells them the moment they're alone in the medbay – he's been out for some time, but not quite long enough to get worrisome. "He's the one evaluating the clones."

"The same Tarkin from the Citadel rescue when you, uh..." Tech trails off. "How shall I put this?"

"Blew up?" Wrecker offers.

"And turned into that?" Crosshair finishes, pointing at Echo with his toothpick.

Echo sighs. "Yes. And he's not a big supporter of clones."

"We'll soon find out. We've been summoned by the Prime Minister," Hunter replies, arms crossed.

"Guess he didn't find that mess hall fight amusing," Wrecker volunteers cheerfully, "But I sure did."

Well, Omega sure did, too, from what Crosshair saw of her, and he can't help casting a glance at the girl as she stands silently off to the side. She had, apparently, insisted on staying with Echo until he woke up even if she was told to go elsewhere. It's like he thought – she's persistent. Stubborn. They won't be getting rid of her anytime soon.

"Come on," Hunter says, moving for the door, "Let's get this over with."

The others start filing after, but Omega sprints forwards, planting herself between them and the door. "Wait. The fight was my fault. I'm going too."

Hunter pauses, looking down at her. "Not happening. We'll handle this," he replies, brushing past her and moving for the door.

"But I –"

"Listen, kid," he tells her shortly, "Our squad's nothing but trouble. For your sake, keep your distance. Got it?"

She looks stung, but she doesn't object. Still, something about leaving here there, alone, just feels... wrong. Any other time, Crosshair would've blindly trusted that Hunter knows what he's doing, but after Kaller... but what could else any of them do? They're soldiers. She's not their concern, even if she wants to be with them. They'll be gone again before she knows it.

"She's just a kid," he finds himself saying, anyway, "She doesn't understand."

Hunter looks at him, and it's not the first time Crosshair noticed it, but he thinks it's the first time he understood it. Something about the tightness of his brother's expression, even if he's doing all he can to hide it – he's in pain. Which is unusual, because he wasn't injured on Kaller, aside from when he got knocked out. His head then, maybe? "She doesn't belong with us," he replies, "We already nearly got her in trouble."

"Technically, it was Omega who started the fight," Tech interrupts before moving off down the hall.

Hunter hasn't... mentioned anything to Tech, which is unusual. They don't hide their injuries, because that's dangerous, but it's happening now, and Crosshair will just have to trust his brother's judgement.

Even if... he's not sure he should do that anymore.

***

It was so... fast. None of them could've expected the droids to randomly switch to live fire mid-training session. That's never happened before. They had no warning, and – and Wrecker was shot. It happens all the time, enough that they're all mostly numb to it, though that doesn't stop the unease.

It's different on the battlefield. This is Kamino. They're supposed to be safe here.

And yes, safe is a relative term, but they've never... had this happen before.