Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

62:

Hunter dashed out onto the overlook, biting back a curse when he found no trace of the miners he'd been chasing down. Those kids were slippery, and they knew the mine better than he did. He wouldn't be surprised if they'd slipped through some side passage he hadn't seen.

"The hyperdrive is nearly online," Tech informed him through the comms. At least that was one bit of good news. He unhooked his handheld from his belt and activated it with a sigh.

"I lost our spies." Movement on one of the bridges caught his attention; he was no Crosshair, but his eyesight had been enhanced enough that he could see the three kids from earlier, along with a number of sentry droids and some large figure he assumed was Mokko. The miners must have gone to fetch him when they'd escaped. "And they called in backup."

On the bridge, Mokko advanced on the closed garage bay door, calling out loudly to ensure the intruders within could hear him, "It appears we have uninvited guests! Care to show yourselves?"

They must have been listening in, because the door opened promptly, and two men burst out, dressed in armour and wielding blasters. Slowly, they advanced down the bridge to meet him, their blasters never wavering from their target: him.

"So you think you can come here and steal from me?"

"Technically, this ship belongs to us." Tech was not impressed, and he took no measures to hide it. It had no effect on Mokko though, the male only grinning cruelly.

"Not anymore! And I'd rethink the blasters. One stray shot, and we're all done for!"

"We don't miss," was all Wrecker growled in response.

Mokko only laughed. "I believe you, but I think you'll reconsider."

He pointed skywards, and the clones, including Hunter, suddenly became very aware of the screams from above. Very familiar screams. They turned their attention upwards, seeing a sentry droid dragging a violently struggling Omega towards the end of a broken bridge. Another one held Astera, the former Jedi's own efforts to free herself weaker than they should have been. Hunter tracked the lethargic movements, the way her feet stumbled as the sentry threw her against the side of the railing, forcing her spine to bend so she hung precariously at the edge. Something was wrong with her.

The droid holding Omega jerked to the edge of the bridge, her boots slipping off the broken planks before she found her footing again. The threat was clear. If either droid let go, they would certainly fall. And there was nothing to stop them from plummeting straight into the molten chasm below.

Mokko's cybernetic claw snapped, the male's face mockingly triumphant. "Lower your weapons, or they go over."

Tech and Wrecker glanced at each other briefly before reluctantly lowering their blasters. Hunter, on the outlook far below them, stowed away his weapon too, reaching for his grappling line and gauging the distance between him and the broken bridge. He could make it. There was enough line for him to grab Omega before the droid could throw her off. But there was still Astera...

"Trespassing and attempted theft." Mokko's savage smile seemed permanently fixed in place now, growing wider and wider as he thought himself secured in his victory. "Ten years in the mines seems like a reasonable punishment, if you survive that long. Take them below."

The miners started forward, hands out and ready to grab Tech and Wrecker, the pair of which shared another glance, unable to do anything. The threat to Astera and Omega aside, these were only kids, and they couldn't fire on a bunch of kids.

"Stop!" Benni appeared in the doorway of the control room, Tech's datapad clenched tight in one hand. Mokko barely even spared him a glance, too fixated on the clones in front of him.