Wanted , The Bad Batch

20 - Gone and Together

Two commandos slowed down as they came up the slope which their brother and Ryki fell over during the earlier skirmish. Hunter and Wrecker slid down the slippery side coming up on barely noticeable imprints of footsteps in the ground to a normal person's eye, but not an experienced tracker. 

Hunter's mind worked silently as he studies the footprints, one pair heavier with a wider gap and the other more lightfoot and unsteady. Wrecker followed his brother deeper into the Felucian jungle. The footsteps continued deeper into the jungle until where Crosshair's deeper footprints came to a halt, just before a small clearing. Somewhere in the middle was a body print stressed out onto soft grass that fit Ryki's body weight judging by how deep the impression went. Besides the body print, Crosshair's footsteps appeared with Ryki's just beside. Wrecker flashed his torchlight towards the new trail of footsteps leading away from the clearing. They followed the tracks a little more till something new caught their attention.

Wrecker was about to follow the prints until one unique print caught his eye. "Hunter, you better take a look at this" Hunter sensed the worried tone in Wrecker's voice. The Sargeant's eyes shot open when he recognize the tracks belonging to a feline-like creature. "Wide gaps from other prints, four..." Hunter mentally sifted through his brain for any predatory creature that would match the tracks. "Nexu..." he decided as he ran his fingertips over four holes in the ground, "Claw marks, this cat was ready to pounce." 

Wrecker hummed in approval, "Yeah, and the kitty didn't get too far." Hunter looked to where Wrecker was now pointing his torchlight. A few paces in front of them laid a dead nexu, body have covered in mud and displaying a clean hole through its skull that still leaked blood. "This is Crosshair's doing. That explains the first shot."

"Which means there were more since we heard more than one shot," Wrecker quickly pieced it together remembering the multiple blaster shots earlier. A faint smell of metal made Hunter choke involuntarily. "Yeah, that means they were chased and possibly outnumbered. Come one, we need to hurry," 

More paw prints started to appear on the ground and Crosshair's and Ryki's footprints were beginning to blend together. "Kark!" Hunter cursed under his breath. He spotted the lifeless bodies of two nexu, one with a clean head-shot, and the other with a gory wound in its neck. Leaning closer to the ground, Hunter analyzed some pieces of plastoid that belonged to none other than his brother. Blood coated a few of the pieces, having already coagulated together. 

"Crosshair's armor. He must have gotten hurt," said Hunter as he showed Wrecker one of the crack pieces. "One nexu was killed by Cross, the other too messy so it must have been Ryki."

"Wh-why would she be using a blaster? She didn't have weapons with her." Wrecker pointed out. "unless..." 

"Crosshair was attacked and Ryki had to defend him!" Hunter quickly finished Wrecker's sentence. The scene of the cat-killing was already too frightening to explain. It was clear that Crosshair had been attacked because of the clear evidence, but there was no evidence to suggest that Ryki was hurt. The sargeant's blood pressure spiked, combined with the enhanced senses the smell of blood and rotting flesh was overwhelming. He needed to get to them fast.

---

Gasping, a mirialan suddenly woke from dozing off. She looked around frantically having accidentally falling asleep in the company of her supposed captor. Her racing heart finally calmed when she noticed that the sniper had also fallen asleep. Ryki relaxed into her makeshift seat once again. 

With the help of a little moonlight, Ryki could see the bleeding on Crosshair's torso had stopped. He must have passed out from exhaustion caused by blood loss. Said sniper had little noticeable tremours of shivers passing through his body. Ryki picked herself up to inspect him, placing her hand gently on his forehead. He felt too warm for the cold weather.