Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

34:

Astera:

Nala Se's laboratory would be our watery grave. Whether the oxygen ran out and we suffocated, or the sea dragon came back and managed to drown us first. I wasn't sure which one I'd prefer more. Either way, our bodies would be forgotten down here, lost to the wreckage of Tipoca City. For now, I was content to wander the lab, exploring it like I would somehow turn up another way of escape for all eight of us.

AZI twitched, flashlight eyes flickering and dimming as his inner machinery whined, head dropping forward like he had no more energy to keep it aloft. Omega reached out for the medical droid, propping his head up. "AZI, what's wrong?"

"My battery cells are depleting." The words were slow, almost lethargic. "I apologise for the inconvenience."

Echo unplugged from the scomp link at the far wall, shaking his head as he crossed the floor to report to us. "Long range comms are down. And our oxygen levels will be critical in a few hours."

Oxygen shortage it was then. I doubted the sea dragon would come back in a few hours, having been thoroughly deterred by AZI's nasty shock to its mouth. Death by slow suffocation. At least most of us would pass out before that. A small mercy, if anything.

"This is what happens when you let a kid call the shots." Crosshair glared accusingly at Omega, the guilt and hurt on the girl's expression showing clear as day.

"That kid helped save your life," I snarled out, jabbing a finger into his chest. Behind me, Hunter snorted incredulously.

"Unlike the Empire that left you for dead."

Crosshair brushed past me, entirely ignoring me once again to get in Hunter's face. "That's your problem, Hunter. You take things too personally."

"They destroyed an entire city."

"They did what needed to be done." He believed wholly in each word he said - I could see it like I had in the training room. "Kamino, the regs, the Republic... That time is over. The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I am going to be a part of it. Hunter, you made the wrong choice."

He pushed past the other clone, heading for the window at the far side of the room. The rest of us stared after him,

"Don't fool yourself. All you'll ever be to them is a number." Crosshair paused momentarily at Hunter's words - the only sign that he had actually heard him - before moving again without a word, taking a heavy seat beneath the window.

Movement beside me caught my eye - Omega, trotting after Crosshair to sit by him. I couldn't make out their words from here, though I didn't need to to tell Crosshair's hostility had not relented. They had only exchanged a few words before Omega stood again and walked away from him, too dejected to even be angry.

"Wrecker, come pick this up." Echo stared at a medical capsule on the ground, light from his torch reflecting off the transparisteel. The larger clone complied, lifting the large tube upright with a grunt, a good half a metre taller than him. Perfect for holding a couple of clones each. And a Jedi. "These medical capsules are our way out of here."

"If our mass is evenly distributed," Tech input the calculations into his datapad, "the buoyancy of these watertight chambers will bring us to the surface."

"Medical capsules have not been tested for such capabilities," AZI interjected, forcing his way into the middle of the group.

Hunter eyed the capsule warily. "We won't have directional control. How will we avoid the debris field out there?"

"The droid." I jolted at the sound of Crosshair's voice behind me, twitching aside out of instinct as he appeared at my shoulder. "He can do it."

Hunter ignored him, addressing the medical droid directly. "AZI, can you get us to the surface?"