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

Chapter 19

Cody surveyed his surroundings trying to address who he liked the most. He could almost feel his brother's death glares, looking around the room his eyes caught what he was looking for. A control panel. Carefully, his hands danced across all the buttons, he pulled a lever down experimenting and smiled when the cages all lowered to the floor before opening quickly. Turning Cody walked in the direction of the kids' cage only to stop in his tracks, Tarkin was missing and the kids were staring back at him with worried eyes but Omega was gone. Carefully the former commander picked the twins up before gently handling them over to Wolffe who gladly took them into his arms. Surprising Cody a little until he saw Howzer making his way over to them. 

A loud explosion shook the area they were in, the walls began to crumble. Havok groaned out loud, voicing almost everybody’s inner thoughts. Wrecker stumbled from his cage following the three jedi who all gave him funny looks when he rubbed his head. Another explosion rocked the facility, Cody turned to the Captain. “We better get out of here Rex and then you can explain to me how you got your butts captured. All of you”. Cody looked around, his eyes lingered on Obi-one a bit longer than the others but he had made his point clear. Wolffe and Howzer effectively ignored Cody but he knew they were smirking under their helmets. Howzer having found his helmet was in Wolffe’s cage for some odd reason, he will never know. The other clones nodded at the commander's words. 

“Tech, how long have we got?” Echo asked his fellow brother who rolled his eyes, “About 12 minutes until this facility goes up in flames”. An ‘ahem’ noise brought everyone's attention to Gregor who held an unconscious Thorn in his arms. “We have company” Gregor announced, dropping to the floor behind some crates, the others following suit as soon as blaster fire rained on their parade. Cody grumbled throwing Rex a spare pistol and shooting the stormtroopers firing back at them, clearly keeping them at bay. Rex let out an annoyed sigh when he realised he had run out of ammo, turning to Cody who had irritated expression in his body language while he shot their opponents, the jedi stayed hidden feeling very weak after the electric torture. 

“You are Surrounded, put your weapons down and come forward!”. The announcement of the stormtrooper almost made Cody laugh but he knew they were out of options, he looked at his brothers who nodded back at him. There was no way in hell they would be surrendering to the Empire. Tech pointed at his watch indicating they had 10 minutes left to get out. Cody grimaced trying to work out a way to get out of here. He noticed a grate just behind Havok and Fives, carefully he got their attention and the two opened the grate carefully but soon found a wall behind it. Sadly, it left Havok to listen to Fives' complaints about the Empire's uselessness.

The blaster fire soon came to a stop when the stormtroopers turned around, placing their backs to the clones, only for them to be shot dead. Cody, Rex and Echo popped their heads over to see a smirking Hunter standing with a few of his batch’s guns. He passed the guns he had and other clones grabbed the stormtroopers' guns for protection. “Sarge? Where’s Crosshair?”. Hunter looked up at Tech’s question shaking his head before announcing, “We have about 7 minutes to get out of this facility, we will rendezvous with Crosshair on the way but I need you and Wrecker to get the twins back to the Havok Marauder and the other gun ship we snatched on our way here”. Tech nodded while analysing his brother's body language. “Cody, you and the boys follow Tech and Wrecker out of the facility. I need to borrow Howzer, Kix and…”. Hunter looked in the direction of Thorn only to frown since the clone seemed unconscious still in Gregor’s arms. “I volunteer!” Echo called from his spot, rubbing his neck when Hunter nodded. The clones were looking at Hunter with different expressions while they took in the handprint of what could clearly been seen as blood on the sergeant's chest.

Tech and Wrecker shared a look, they knew Hunter was avoiding telling them something but it would have to wait and the brothers didn’t seem to like it. But the two still led the other clones plus the twins back to the ships. Hunter turned to his group with a few hand signals before directing them through the narrow deserted corridors; it took a few twists and turns until Hunter came across a room. He opened the door only to gasp. Crosshair wasn’t where he left him. Thankfully there was a familiar knife stuck in the wall, but Hunter still felt like reprimanding Crosshair when he got his hands on him.