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Hunter’s head was pounding as he crouched at the floor of the simulated forest floor. The holographic dirt shifted between his fingers, wafting back down to the ground. He took a deep breath, stood back up, and followed the trail he could see ahead, the broken branches and displaced dirt shone lighting up in his vision.
He was tired. Hunter was so tired, but he ran anyway. He needed to finish this test and then the trainer said he could go back to the barracks. He could do this.
As he worked through the seemingly endless woods, something caught the corner of his eye, a rustling sound coming from the South. His body froze as he looked towards the distraction.
He just caught the tail-ends of light hair, long, curly, and barely kept orderly.
There he is , Hunter thought somewhat smugly.
Hunter took off in that direction, unable to keep from noticing the way the transparent plastoid on the face of the training helmet fogged slightly with each heavy breath. He hated this damn thing.
His trainer growled over the PA system. “CT-9901, if you take your helmet off one more time–”
Tech’s eyes darted over to him. “Hunter, don’t–”
“I can’t breathe or hear anything!” He’d barked back, helmet tossed to the ground. “How am I supposed to use the osik’la abilities you gave me in this thing?”
The simulation stopped, his brothers all looking back toward him in surprise. Hunter didn’t blow up like this.
The trainer walked into the room, storming to Hunter. He scooped up his helmet, taking a deep breath to start berating him but was stopped by Nala Se saying his name over the intercom.
The ex-bounty hunter scowled as he shoved Hunter’s training helmet back onto his head roughly. “It’s for your own karking good, clone ,” he growled. “Take it off again and I’ll make sure your head goes with it.”
His gear felt heavy as he finally began to encroach on his target’s location.
Just over the ridge were several gunships in a small clearing. Even in the darkness, he could see that this could easily be a trap, but that didn’t bother him.
As he walked towards the gunships, his steps nearly silent and his practice blaster drawn, he could hear his heart rate pick up. Relax , he told himself. Too many beats per minute and it would affect his score.
He got to the edge of the first gunship, body stilling. He listened.
The light, misty rain hitting the metal roofs threatened to distract him, but he pushed past it.
His target was too used to him, but he knew a weakness. He glanced down at his belt, finding the knife he’d found himself becoming fond of. Gripping the blade, he reared his hand back and flung the knife through the air, hitting the metal of another opening just right for the doorway to deflect it. The knife fell to the ground, sticking up in the dirt. Hunter’s movements stilled once more as he listened for that inevitable sound.
There , he thought as his senses honed in on one particular sound he’d heard before. A small huff akin to a taunting laugh.
He tread to the second gunship, dirt shifting almost imperceptibly beneath his boots, though he could hear it.
His gun led him around that last corner, finding Bugg in his sights with a smirk.
Bugg’s eyes rolled back as he held in a curse. He held his hands up in defeat as Hunter attached the elimination puck to his uniform. Hunter chuckled at Bugg’s dramatic sigh.
“ Well done, CT-9901 ,” the voice of his trainer called through the comms in his helmet. Hunter’s eye twitched at the volume. “ Now, complete the mission. ”
Hunter blinked. “Sir?”
“ Are you stupid like that monster you call ‘brother’? Your mission was to track and eliminate the target. What are you waiting for? ”
“I already gave him the puck,” Hunter reasoned. “The mission is over.”
His trainer sighed. “ There aren’t any stupid little pucks in war, little clone. You have live rounds. Use them.”
Bugg’s eyes went wide as he searched Hunter’s face. “H-Hunter?”
“It’s gonna be okay, kih’vod,” Hunter assured him, his scowl deepening. “I won’t shoot my brother.”
“ You don’t have a choice, ” the trainer taunted. “ Obey the order, soldier, or it’s two weeks intensive solo training, no rations. Good soldiers follow orders. ”
Hunter growled as he threw his rifle down. He stared up into the simulated sky, where he knew the room he was being monitored from was situated.
“Guess it’ll be the solo training then,” he spat, throwing his helmet on the ground. “Ke’gyce lo’shebs’ul narit, because I will never hurt my brothers.”
The simulation faded around them as the trainer stormed in, stopping directly in Hunter’s face. “Is that how you talk to a superior, clone ?”
“Sorry, sir.” Hunter feigned a retraction of his attitude. “I meant ‘ke’gyce lo’shebs’ul narit, sir ’.”