Chapter Text
“I thought you fixed that part!”
“I thought I did too! Stop yelling at me and hang on to something this isn’t going to be pleasant!”
Shouting rang throughout the small ship as it hurdled its way towards the planet. The crew wasn’t even meant to be this far out, but yet here they were headed head first into an endless sand dune.
“I hope the ship makes it out of this one!” A small voice pipes up amongst the various yelling.
“The ship? What about us! It’ll be a miracle if we survive a drop like this” Echo rolls his eyes, clutching onto the harness of the seat as best as possible.
“Everyone shut up and hang on! We’re about to make contact” Hunter raises his voice to silence his team. They have been through worse, but not by far. Seconds after he commands silence, everyone braces for impact in their seats and the ship’s hull digs itself into the dune. If there was anyone nearby they would have been able to see the large sand cloud that accompanied it. But alas this was an endless desert, and the Bad Batch was never lucky enough to have someone conveniently nearby to help them.
Hours passed by, but it only seemed like a few moments for the clones as they slowly regained consciousness. Hunter was first to open his eyes, doing a quick scan of the state of the ship. The ship had also been through worse, but it was going to be a while before the Marauder was back in the air. The pilot's seat had broken off, many of the screens had shattered, and all of their personal belongings that weren’t strapped down had landed directly in the cockpit thanks to the sharp ninety degree angle they had crashed at. Using his quick look around the room to make sure he could see straight, he looked around at the state of his team. Hunter noticed that most of his team had stayed in their seats with the harness still intact.
Hunter let out a groan as he made an attempt to move his arm, wanted to unclip his own seat harness, “alright sound off- Omega.”
Hunter made it a point to do role calls after any near-death experience, crash, or cave in. Once Omega had joined the team, her name replaced Echo’s as being the first one called. But yet when he called her name he was met with silence. He hated that. Nothing more terrifying than someone not being able to answer during role call.
“Omega?” He called louder.
“I see her! She’s trapped under the pilot's chair. Hold on.” Echo called out as he unclipped his own seat harness and carefully descended into the cockpit of the ship. Now knowing that Echo was alright and currently preoccupied recusing Omega from the pile of stuff she got buried under, Hunter skipped his name and moved on.
“Tech”
“Somehow still alive.” The man in question was sitting to his right, glasses crooked, and arm bruised, but nothing serious.
“Wrecker”
Wrecker just let out a groan as he did his best to wake up. He was alive, just most likely concussed. Hunter let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding; everyone was perfectly fine. Somehow Omega was the only one to get flung out of the seats this time.
Hunter used parts of the now broken ship to climb towards the exit, motioning for everyone to do the same. Tech nodded and unclicked the harness carefully so as to not fall down in the cockpit himself. He then moved to assist Wrecker out of his seat before helping him ascend the ship. Hunter climbed out of the door and pulled himself out of the ship, taking a small tumble as he fell into the sand. The drop out of the door of the ship was higher than he originally thought it was.
"All clear!” He yelled after doing a quick survey of the area. He couldn’t see anything but sand for miles.
Wrecker made an attempt at moving carefully out of the ship but landed on his back after taking the seven-foot drop. Still in pain from the crash, Wrecker opted to lay on the ground for a bit longer. Unlike his brothers, Tech was successful in carefully climbing down the side of the Marauder.
“Where…are we?” Hunter questioned, mainly to himself.
“Judging by the endless sands and the two suns, I would have to say Tatooine.”
“Tatooine? How the hell did we get all the way out here.”
“Because you did a shit job of fixing the hyperdrive that’s how!” Echo’s voice boomed from the doorway of the Marauder. Tech and Hunter turned to look up at him and were quick to notice that he was carrying an unconscious Omega on his back.
"Well how was I supposed to know that the suppressors were bad?"
"That's your whole thing! Knowing things!" Echo argued as he descended.
"Well, I don't know everything " Tech huffed and crossed his arms.
"You don't?" Wrecked looked up at him with a squint.
Once Echo carefully descended the ship, Hunter was quick to meet him on the ground to help Omega. As soon as he passed the child over, he took no time before marching over to Tech. "I told you that the hyperdrive was broken but you didn't listen."
Hunter rolled his eyes but did his best to ignore their squabbling. The fact that Omega still hadn’t woken up yet was beginning to make him worry. Well, worry more. He knew how to check pupils for a concussion, which she thankfully didn’t have. But he wasn’t sure if it was something worse, they needed to find a town or at the very least a random traveler to help them. He moved Omega onto his back and stood carefully before addressing the group, who were still bickering. "Alright that's enough! Arguing is not going to fix this mess, now c'mon. There's got to be some kind of civilization nearby."
The heat was nearly unbearable, especially to a group of people wearing black armor and basically skintight black suits underneath said armor. Not to mention the sand that had let itself into all the nooks and crannies of their plastoid armor. The group individually had half a thought to remove their armor, but quickly realized that carrying it in their arms would be more of a hassle then wearing it.
Omega had woken up at some point during their journey. Thankfully for everyone's sanity she was perfectly fine, just a splitting headache and some light bruising. Once Tech gave her a quick once over with his handheld multi-purpose device, she was given the all clear to walk on her own. Echo and Hunter explained the situation as best as they could to her on the way. She had a lot of questions that they weren’t sure how to answer, but she seemed happy enough to be with everyone.
The plan was to see how much repairs for the ship would be, and most likely have to find a place to camp out for a while till it gets fixed. Not to mention sending Cid her least favorite kind of update. Aka that they were going to be late…very late. None of them even knew if she would even get their message due to how far out they were.
As they walked Tech was trying to wrack his brain around what had happened. He always double, sometimes triple, checks everything in the ship before they take off for a longer mission. During his routine check, nothing came up as broken or malfunctioning. Yet the hyperdrive still messed up. Normally when a ship has a malfunctioning hyperdrive, it just means that it's unusable or only usable for short distances. This mistake had flung them farther into space than they wanted to be and shorted out many of their other necessities upon leaving hyperspace. He was almost angry at himself for not seeing the mistake, but the confusion on how something like that happened under the radar of his very thorough checks was stronger.
He was so lost in his own annoyance that he hadn’t noticed how much time had passed. When Echo finally called his name for the third time, he realized that the batch finally stumbled upon a small town. Small stone huts scattered the perimeter; each building had a moister tower outside of it, but the main heart of the town was surrounded by larger stone walls. It didn't look like anything fancy, but it was civilization and that's all they wanted.
Strolling around town felt more tense than it usually did. They were used to the stares at this point. It didn't matter if they had their helmets on or not, people were always wary of them. Hunter was the first to remove his helmet, taking in the humid putrid air. His bandana was already drenched in sweat, and he could feel stray hairs sticking to his face. He hated this planet already. But there was no time to complain, they needed to split up to cover more ground. Hunter turned to his team to give them their tasks.
"Tech, Echo, ask around for anyone that knows how to fix a ship or at least has the parts. Wrecker, see if you can find us some food. Omega and I will figure out where we are and get water."
Everyone gave a nod of acknowledgment as they were given their missions before walking in opposite ways. Tech and Echo seamlessly resumed their argument from the ship as they walked away. Omega turned to Hunter with a smile. That smile meant that was she wanted to go exploring and was silently asking. Hunter rolled his eyes slightly before ushering her in a different direction. The kids love for exploring new places was going to be the end of him.
Hunter had never been to Tatooine before, had only heard stories of the endless desert and how difficult water was to come by. Thankfully, the team had just finished a high paying job for Cid right before they got thrust into this one. The two wandered the streets, doing their best to blend in. There were a few food stands, open bars and closed off cantinas, and a handful of shops. It didn't take long for he and Omega to learn that they were in Mos Eisley. A small town that was most known for it being one of the few places in Tatooine with a pretty good but also functioning space port. Hunter had a feeling that’s where Echo and Tech ended up.
He was already starting to hate this place. With a sigh, he headed towards one of the shops. Not really sure what else to do but to ask someone where to go. The clone wasn't really sure what he was looking for, practically guessing at this point. But he was never wrong. The shop that they happened to stumble into was just the place they needed.
During a majority of the walk around town, Omega had stayed by his side. Trying to be better about not running off on her own without warning. She didn't mean to get in trouble, she was just a naturally curious child who loved to explore. The child followed Hunter into the shop and opted to sit patiently on one of the stools as they waited for the shopkeeper to grab the barrel. As she looked out of the shop's entryway into the slow stream of civilians just going about their day. One caught her attention. A man in a brown cloak, hiding his face. After glancing up at Hunter to check if the coast was clear, she hopped out of her chair and quietly walked to the doorway. The man didn't seem like a threat, something about him even intrigued her. She looked back at Hunter, who hadn't noticed that she left her chair and thought about heading out just for a second. Surely Hunter wouldn't notice that. Right?
Once again, her curiosity got the better of her and she headed out into the street. As she closed the distance between her and the hooded man, she spoke with a smile. "Excuse me sir! Hi there!"
The man turned his body to look at her, face contorting into a few different emotions before landing on confusion. "I'm sorry, are you talking to me?"
"Yeah! Sorry to bother you but do you know any good places to repair a ship? Ours crashed pretty bad a few hours from here. So, we’re just asking around!"
"I- no I'm sorry you're better off asking someone else." The stranger adjusted some of the fabric around his body, almost as if he was trying to hide under it more than he already was.
"Omega! There you are!" Unbeknownst to Omega, Hunter had caught up to her already. His boots stopped next to hers before turning to the stranger. "Sorry to trouble you sir, she has a habit of running off."
The stranger watched as Hunter turned his gaze to give a disappointed sigh to the small child. He was saying something, but the man was too focused on his face. It was a face he knew all too well and had spent the last year and a half trying to forget. Not only did he recognize Hunter's face, but the tattoo on his face. The stranger felt his stomach twist into knots as a wave of sudden anxiety washed over him.
Hunter looked back to the man, just intending on making sure he wasn't dangerous. Instead, the men locked eyes. Piercing blue eyes gazing into Hunter's soul in a way that should have felt uncomfortable and invasive but didn't, it almost felt...calming. He stared back, trying to make sense of the situation. Then it hit him, just like the blue waves he saw in the stranger's eyes. He knew this face. He never forgot a face, even if he had only seen the face in person once and on a holo a handful of times. Hunter never forgot a face, but especially not one so distinct as the one in front of him.
Hunter opens his mouth to speak, but his voice is so quiet that even he's unsure if he heard it. "...you..."
The man's eyes widen for a moment before he tears his eyes away from the Clone. He wants to reply, or at least apologize, but thinks better of it before turning away from the pair fully and walking away.
"There's no way," Hunter whispers to himself.
"Well, that was weird!" Omega says loudly, knocking Hunter out of his thought spiral before it can even start. Hunter doesn't respond, and just turns back around to lead Omega back to the shop.
Another hour passed before the team reunites around the center of town to discuss their findings. Wrecker was successful in getting a decent amount of food for the group, he was very proud of himself for not eating half of it on the way over despite how hungry he was. Omega passed out the water that she and Hunter bought as Tech and Echo explained the tired look on their faces.
"It's going to take a week. At least." Tech stated, as if ripping off a Band-Aid.
Wrecker let out a loud groan, "A week!"
"It will take a few days to get someone out there that can pull the ship out of the sand, and then even more time to fix it enough to fly again. It would be best to only do bare minimum until we can get back to Ord Mantell quickly. Cid was already displeased that we were going to be late again."
"Good idea. We'll just have to find a place to camp out for the week then." Hunter said with a nod, earning a groan from both Wrecker and Omega. It’s not like they had much of a choice, no ship means no cool air or going anywhere else but here.
"We could always go back to the ship. Camp around it!" Wrecker suggested, taking a bite out of the food he bought.
"I would rather not be out in the open while in the middle of the desert. This is Tatooine after all." Tech retorted, readjusting his glasses.
"If we stay around here, we might run into people like that weird guy again!" Omega said matter of factly. She didn't mean it as an insult, weird was good in her eyes.
"Weird guy?" Questioned Echo.
"Yeah! I was just asking around about where to fix the ship, he said no, stared at Hunter for a bit, and then ran off."
"We get stares all the time kid, I probably just got recognized as a clone. Nothing to worry about. Try to forget about the ‘weird guy’, we need to figure out where to stay for the next few days."
They ended up setting up camp just outside of town. Wrecker and Echo had made a trip to gather some of their things from the ship, as well as to make sure no one saw it as junk and stripped it for parts. Thankfully it was still intact when they arrived. That night as they drifted off to sleep, everyone huddled together for warmth, Hunter's eyes remained open. He normally had trouble sleeping due to his senses being overloaded or there being too much to think about. This time was different. He couldn't place the reason, but he kept thinking about the stranger from earlier.
Hunter never forgets a face; he knew that one. He knew he was right, yet he couldn't help but second guess himself. He couldn't be all the way out here, could he?