Chapter Text
The Havoc Marauder took off, turning away from the platform before swinging itself up and away in a graceful arc. Crosshair watched it go, his brothers returning to wherever they had managed to hole themselves up in. It was only when they left the atmosphere that Crosshair turned his back on them and looked back out over what had once been Tipoca City.
Fools.
He watched as the smoke from the fires trailed up into the sky. While he understood why the city had to be destroyed there was a slight pang of loss in his chest. Tipoca City had been his base of operations for years. He’d grown up in those white sterile halls. He had been trained there…
… and his brother had left him there.
His fingers dug into his biceps as he thought about them. Why did they want to throw away all the power and prestige that the Empire had to offer? It couldn’t all be because of Omega. There had to be something more at work here. There was obviously something out there that drove them to turn their backs on their purpose in life.
…On him.
At least they had given him the chance to leave with them this time. Though to be fair he hadn’t exactly given them a choice when they first had to flee the city. He had checked the security holovids himself after they had escaped their holding cells and made it to the Marauder. Hunter had been sideways to the camera when he doled out the orders but it had been easy enough to read his lips. They had been planning on coming after him, Tech securing their getaway while the rest of them extracted him from medical.
You didn’t exactly give us much of a choice.
Hunter’s voice echoed in the back of his mind and he growled irritably. His orders had been to hunt them down. If he had really wanted them dead it wasn’t like he’d miss as often as he had. The shots he’d fired on Bracca and Ryloth all warning shots to try and get them to surrender. Even ordering the ion engine to fire, he’d thought that they would try to scramble out and into his ambush not blow the exhaust cylinder off the back of the ship.
It’s not like any of that mattered anymore. They had made their choice. They were fugitives of the Empire now and had turned down his offer to reenlist so that they could all be together again. Sithspit he even would have even figured out a way for Omega to stay with them if they were that worried about her.
Not like it mattered what he had been willing to do for them, they had turned down his offer, they were his enemy now.
Crosshair… We never were.
Hunter may not see him as the enemy but everyone had been more than ready to point a weapon at him. It hurt that even when he was trying to help they hadn’t trusted him. The tension in their shoulders and floating through the air had been so thick as Hunter held that kid encouraging her to breathe. Only once he had tossed his rifle to Wrecker had everyone calmed down and put their weapons away.
No, it was better this way; he had chosen his path and they had chosen theirs.
He looked back over the wreckage that was all that remain of Tipoca City. It had been decommissioned, it represented the old ways but the Empire was new and more powerful than the Republic had been. Just as he was now more powerful than he had been. He may have lost his brothers but he had gained so much more.
He ignored the small pang in his chest at that thought but quickly ignored it. He’d given them the chance to stay with him just as Hunter had offered him to go with them. There paths were now too different, they would never be able to see eye to eye again. If they were smart they would vanish and never cross his path again.
He had been given the order to hunt them down and he would do so if he ever caught so much as a whiff of them again.
-Break-
Crosshair marched down the ramp of the scout ship, eyes automatically scanning the flight deck. He was a bit surprised that ES-02 stood nearby, waiting patiently for him to disembark his rescuer’s ship. After having sent her to remove Omega from the city he hadn’t heard from her again.
“Commander,” her helmet dipped slightly in acknowledgement. “It’s good to see you in one piece sir.”
There was something about her stance that put Crosshair on guard. He was good at reading people, their body language gave away much more than anyone would suspect. He wished for a moment that he still had his helmet; it was easier to analyze someone when they didn’t realize you were watching them. “ES-02. When you failed to regroup with the squad I figured that kid had somehow managed to kill you.”
There was a subtle flinch in her posture. He had definitely hurt a nerve there. For a so called elite trooper to be taken out by a ten year old it had to be embarrassing. Though he was one to talk… it still had to have been a lucky shot.
“Incapacitated Commander,” ES-02 seemed to be hissing that out between clenched teeth. “By the time I came too Vice Admiral Rampart was issuing the final order for all remaining personal off Tipoca City for the bombardment. I tried raising you on the comms as I went but when I got no reply I figure you and the rest of the squad had been defeated.”
Crosshair could tell she wasn’t telling him something but she pressed on before he could question her on it. “The Vice Admiral wanted to see us immediately on your arrival.”
“Hn.” Figures he’d want to have a report on what had happened down there. “Very well.”
They walked off the flight desk with her taking her usual place just to the right and behind his shoulder. There was an itch between his shoulder blades as they went. While this was how she usually accompanied him anywhere as was standard procedure there was a layer of underlining tension that was getting to him. Her very presence was rankling him, causing him to grit his teeth painfully.
They’re just using you!
He sighed as he stepped into a lift, irritated that Hunter’s words were still floating about in his head. He waited for ES-02 to join him and punched in the floor number causing the doors to close. He rubbed his forehead with his fingers and hoped that his mind would just stop replaying everything Hunter had been saying to him in the city. It was starting to give him a headache.
Speaking of headaches, ES-02 was practically squirming next to him. “What is it already,” he sneered as he looked over his shoulder at her.
The helmet masked her expression but he could tell she flinched at his obvious ire. “Vice Admiral Rampart wanted to see us immediately sir.”
He huffed and turned back around. Was that seriously the only reason she was nervous? “I am not going to see my commandeering officer without my gear. If we need to deploy immediately I’m not making this trip then. There will be more important task to be worried about.”
Instead of getting her to calm down she seemed even more jittery now. He let out another huff and turned his back on her. He had more important things to think about now.
Before he had been alerted to Hunter’s capture, Crosshair had been setting up two very different investigations for his squad. Both of which would have to be delayed until they could fill out there numbers again. While he still had prep to do for both missions reviewing all potential candidates for his squad was going to take precedence. As much as she was irritating him currently, ES-02 had been a good solider and followed his orders to the letter even if there was occasional hesitation. She deserved to be promoted to his lieutenant.
One thing he had to admit he still admired about Hunter; he had managed to handle the shear volume of paperwork without a single complaint. It honestly made Crosshair question how much he had actually done over the course of their involvement in the war. Of course he remembered Tech routinely hacking and modifying their medical records so it wouldn’t surprise him if his younger brother had had a hand in modifying the paperwork flow too.
He sighed, pushing them from his head again. They had made their choice. He needed to stop thinking of them or he would get distracted.
Their private barracks were as neat as ever. The droids and new recruits on disciplinary treatment have obvious been through recently judging by the smell of cleaner in the air. They would be back through shortly to remove the deceased’s gear and take it down to recycle.
ES-02 hung out by the door which was odd but since he was just gathering his spare helmet and rifle and her earlier concerns about making the Admiral wait it made since to some extent. He fitted the helmet and backpack on swiftly, breaking down the spare rifle and stowing it on his pack with the speed and efficiency that he had been trained with. A spare pistol was quickly tucked into his belt and he turned and started back towards the door.
ES-02 seemed to twitch slightly as he turned to her and now that he had his helmet on he took a good long look at her as he walked across the room to join her. It was very apparent that she was nervous about something judging by the tension in her shoulders. She kept bending her thumb in towards her palm with her two fingers as she waited for him while her left hand hung loosely at her side.
It did not escape his notice that her left hand was strangely close to her side arm.
That strange apprehensive itch was back.
However she wasn’t really looking at him. Her visor was locked on ES-03’s bunk. Crosshair knew that they had engaged in sexual acts together but this so far had been the most emotion he had seen from either of them. He had no problem if his squad wanted to engage in stress relief unless it interfered with the mission. Since neither had let their professionalism slip he had let it slide.
He didn’t say anything as he strode past her but she fell back into step regardless. The trip back up to the bridge and into the Admiral ready room was silent but he couldn’t disregard the itch that was still bothering him. There was definitely something about this situation that was making him uncomfortable.
As soon as he stepped into the room when he was bid to enter, he noticed the guards standing on either side of the door, and he nearly paused. His foot hesitated with the next step he took before he continued forward. The itch was screaming at him now. Something was very wrong with this situation.
Still, outside of that slight hesitation at the door Crosshair walked into the room as he normally would, coming to a loose parade rest a respectably distance from the front of the desk and slid off his helmet tucking it under one arm. ES-02 mirrored him at his side. He waited patiently as the Vice Admiral looked over an incoming memo on his holopad and typed out a quick reply before turning his attention to him. “Commander, I’d like to hear a report on what happened down there.” He gave him a slight smirk that made Crosshair stare back impassively. “It’s not every day that you hear of someone surviving an aerial bombardment of a city.”
Crosshair already had the lie conveniently tucked aside. It had taken almost four hours for the scouts to swing back through the area when he sent out his beacon which allowed him to come up with a plausible explanation for what had happened in the city. He had gone over it several times to make sure there was no way to implicate him or his brothers in anyway. It was his way of giving them a final parting gift for allowing him to go with them to the safety of the landing platform when they could have left him behind.
“Yes sir. As I suspected Clone Force 99 followed Hunter’s comm signature right to the training area and used the lift to attempt to get the drop on us. I had already deployed the squad to have them covered as the lift raised and they surrendered their weapons when they realized that they were out gunned. I dispatched ES-02 to locate and retrieve the girl that they travel with while I attempted to recruit Clone Force 99 for the empire.”
There was a small frown on Rampart’s face at that comment so Crosshair expanded on his logic. “They are all highly skilled like I am and while they would require reconditioning, my previous squads record when operating within the GAR should speak to what an asset they would be for the Empire.”
“Yes, I have read over the reports,” Rampart’s eyes went to a particular holopad on his desk before going back to him. “A one hundred percent success rating is not something to be taken lightly. Please continue with your report.”
He dipped his head slightly before continuing, “ES-02 called in as I was attempting to recruit them and I gave her the order to remove the girl from the facility as a gesture of good faith toward the squad. However, the combat droids were activated by the kid before ES-02 could arrest her. They were programmed for a training run known as the Citadel and authorized to use live fire for the duration of the simulation. The sudden surprise round killed off my elite squad who had been focused on keeping Clone Force 99 under guard. I too might have been killed if the clone force’s leader hadn’t tackled me to the ground in an attempt to overpower me. During our fight another member of the clone force fired a stun round at my back. By the time I woke, Clone Force was gone and the bombardment had begun.
“I knew of an extra landing pad that the GAR had had commissioned shortly after Separatist General Grievous attacked the city. It had been designed with the tactical strategy to be used if the city was ever taken as a useful drop pad for troops and supplies to retake the facility. I managed to get through the emergency bulkhead before they sealed off the water and made my way through the underwater tube system to the landing pad where I activated my beacon.”
“Hm,” Rampart smirked at him. “And do you know what happened to Clone Force? Did they survive the decommissioning of the city too?”
“I don’t,” he heaved a sigh and took a moment to make it at least look like he was thinking about it. “However given how resourceful they can be I doubt that they perished during the bombardment. There is a high chance that they will still be active in the future.”
“And you believe this to all be true?”
It was an odd question that caused uncertainty to begin to build in his stomach. The small itch was now burning across his shoulder blades. Still, he knew if he wavered now he was as good as caught in his lie. “Yes sir.”
“Hm,” Rampart said as he gave him a slight nod. He steepled his fingers in front of his face for a moment and stared off into the middle distance. A moment later he looked right up at Crosshair as if attempting to pin him in place with his own stare. “I applaud your story telling ability CT-9904 but ES-02 has already logged a report that contradicts your statement.”
It was like a bolt of electricity shot down his spine. He forced himself to stay rigid as he turned his head slightly to the side so he could see her. “She has?” he made sure that the venomous sneer in his voice was more pronounced than normal.
“Yes,” though Rampart was the one talking Crosshair didn’t let up his glare on her till she saw her throat bob slightly. “According to her when she stepped back into the training room to provide assistance you were back to back with your former squad helping them complete the simulation while the rest of the elite squad was already downed.”
Oh no.
A small voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Echo seemed to mock him. Makes you wonder if this is what Hunter felt like when you reported on him allowing the padawan to escape.
Rampart held up a hand to stop any protest he could have formulated as he picked up a holopad on his desk. “However I felt that I needed more concrete proof that this was indeed what had happened. You have been an exemplary soldier after all. Almost too good in fact… So I asked the ISB if they had left any probe droids around Topica City and they presented me with an alarming series of vids and photos.”
He activated the holopad in his hand and turned it so that Crosshair could watch the short vid on the screen. It was shot low, the droid had nearly been in the sea to avoid detection but it still had a perfect shot of them paddling up to the landing pad that the Marauder was sitting on and disembarking. Wrecker had even grabbed his arm and helped to haul him up onto the platform in clear view of the droid’s camera.
Oh kriffing sithspit.
Rampart sighed as he let the holopad fall back onto his desk. “You can imagine my anger just now when you blatantly lied to me,” There was nothing friendly about the smile that was currently on his face. “I don’t take kindly to spies especially one that had their routine down as well as you did. It makes me wonder how long you could have continued to operate if you hadn’t slipped up just now.”
Crosshair felt his stomach drop. Between the evidence presented and the lie he had been caught in there was no way out without damning him even more than with what was just presented. If he could even get Rampart to listen to him which at this point was highly unlikely.
Rampart looking over his shoulder in either direction as a gesture to the Stormtroopers standing on either side of them. “CT-9904 surrender your weapon,” he said as he stood from his desk and held out a hand expectantly.
Crosshair forced himself to take a calming breath even as the very fiber of his being raged at the man in front of him. He wanted nothing more than to aim his rifle at Vice Admiral Rampart’s head and shoot him instead of turning it over but he didn’t need to have Hunter’s hearing to know the guards stationed at the doors had their weapons trained on him. Nor did he miss the way his traitorous squad mate’s hand was starting to inch slowly towards her gun. The only person that hadn’t moved other than him was staring down the end of his nose at him, unflinching as he waited for Crosshair to comply with his order.
You’re nothing but a number to them.
He nearly did it anyway, knowing that he would have died possibly before he even got the shot off but it would have been so satisfying in his last moments to see him with a blaster round through his head. Being labeled as a spy would land him in front of a firing squad. That’s not what he wanted. He wanted to be in the Empire, to be powerful again, to walk high amongst the other Imperials and seen as they’re equal and not just a clone. He was so much more than just being a clone.
They’re using you Crosshair.
Good soldiers follow orders.
Crosshair gritted his teeth as he reached back for his rifle, moving slowly so as not to be shot. His own words and Hunter’s echoing back and forth in his skull. He was caught against a wall of his own ideals and knowing what was about to happen.
And he was a soldier…
… and good soldiers followed orders.
He swung his rifle over his shoulder and he presented it for the Vice Admiral to take. His teeth were grinding together so hard he could all but hear them cracking. The hand not holding his rifle was clenched so tightly in a fist the creak of fabric and plastiod had to be audible in the room.
“Good boy,” Admiral Rampart said as if he was praise a favorite pet rather than another human. He took the weapon from Crosshair and turned his back on him. “Guards escort CT-9904 to the detention block.”
The two guards from the door stepped up behind him, the one on his left coming around to clip a pair of binders over his wrists. He then took Crosshair’s helmet out of the crook of his arm before starting towards the door beckoning him to follow. Crosshair ignored both of them and Rampart as he turned around, choosing instead to give a cold stare at ES-02. She met his eyes with a cool calculating gaze of her own but the triumph in them was unmistakable. Just to rattle her, he let a knowing smirk break across his face as the guards pull him away.
He relished in the flash of confusion and fear that briefly flashed across her face before she quickly quelled it.
The guards marched him out of the office, the one leading the way and the other behind him with his blaster drawn. Crosshair went like he was supposed to, like a good soldier would do. The anger boiled in him as he thought of his own words being thrown back at him. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He had been loyal to them and how did that end for him now?
To add insult to injury all he could hear was Hunter’s voice quietly repeating the same things in the back of his head.
…You’re nothing but a number to them…
…They’re just using you…
…Crosshair… we never were…
They may not have been acting as his enemy at the time but their actions were still leading him to his death.