A Sacrafice of the Heart (HunterxCrosshair) Book 1 - COMPLETE!

Chapter two

6 months later...

Well it could be said the Havok Marauder was most certainly more quiet these days. It may be because of the fact the crew had a new nickname "the ghost batch", they appeared when people needed help but they didn't interact much with anybody. In truth they didn't want to get close to anymore people as they were sick of losing their loved ones. They mainly spoke to Sid, their boss from time to time when she wasn't too busy. They were on another errand for Sid to collect some spice that was passing through a local village and causing problems for these villagers. The Bad Batch have been working non stop, yes they were soldiers but it was starting to take its toll on Omega. They had just finished delivering the spice.

Echo found himself alone in the cockpit of the Havok Marauder as his batch mates were sleeping in their respective bunks. Echo just couldn't sleep; he figured it had something to do with Kamino. Everyone avoided the touchy subject but Echo as he told stories to Omega about what Kamino was like when he was a lot younger. Omega was always interested but she didn't bring it up in the presence of her other brothers. Echo found himself staring into space watching for anything. It always mesmerised him at how beautiful yet dangerous that space could be. Thinking back to Crosshair who to a suprise Echo had become quite fond of, the two shared sworn secrets as when Echo had a night terror the first one to help was Crosshair. Echo got to see a different side of Crosshair that few saw. Smiling to himself Echo hadn't realised the sensor was blinking at him revealing a message. A hand on his shoulder had him jumping out of his thoughts, looking up he met Tech's confused but tired stare.

Echo moved into the co-pilot seat allowing Tech to have his own seat. Tech hooked up to the cockpit to read the message, gasping and dropping his datapad. The crash alerted the others who came into the cockpit to see what the disturbance was. 

"Hunter it would seem a message has come through with an unknown source but the symbol is yours" Tech explained the situation after snapping out of his trance he continued, "There are few who know your symbol and have access to your records Hunter, would you like to do the honours?" Hunter gulped slightly as he went to open the message when a call came in, Tech opened the call and it revealed Captain Rex. 

"Captain, what can we do?" Hunter answered.

"Sargent, I was about to ask that to you as I have received a message with your signature attached and an ally of mine has received the same and I was wondering if it was your doing?" Captain's Rex came over the call. Hunter was actually confused now, he had no idea what was going on. Tech was right there were few people who had access to his signature and one of them was gone now. 

"Captain, we have just received a message with Hunter's signature but he is sure it isn't his. We all know how Hunter is with any type of technology. I've tried to trace it but it bounces back to an unknown source and towards some coordinates that I am unfamiliar with. I will ping the coordinates over to you. Sending now" Tech looked at Echo as he answered Rex. "Coordinates received Tech, I know this may sound strange but the coordinates are bouncing all over the place. Hang on a minute, its stopped. Whatever interference it was has stopped on Ryloth" Rex sounded a bit out of breath before sighing.

"Captain, the empire will be all over Ryloth. Do you have any idea why we would receive these coordinates?" Echo spoke. 

"How many times must I tell you Echo to just call me Rex" Echo laughed before Rex continued "Actually Echo for some reason the Empire left the planet about six months ago and they have not returned. I know this because I and I'm sure you have heard of him. Havok has taken refuge here as a down low before we move on. I will send you the coordinates. Meet me at these coordinates and then we can investigate the other coordinates together. I must go" with that Rex logged off. Echo smiled before turning to Hunter who nodded.