Star Wars: Rebel Rising(34)

“Tell that to the people on Tamsye Prime, the ones who aren’t worth it.” Saw smirked, but there was no triumph in his voice, just disappointment.

“We cannot fight every battle.” Idryssa glared defiantly back at Saw. “But if you can get me intelligence about what it’s like on the ground at Tamsye Prime, I can get them to consider a raid. I’m not asking much, Saw. Just a scouting mission, that’s all.”

Saw stared at her, then looked away. “Get out,” he finally said, his voice softer than his words. “I’ve got a mission to plan.”





Saw stared at the holocube of Tamsye Prime Idryssa had left behind. With an Imperial blockade around the planet and an Imperial presence at the factory, a scouting mission would be no easy task.

“Get Reece,” Saw growled.

Jyn jumped up, but before she left the room, Saw called her back. “And Codo.”

Jyn dashed out of the outpost. Idryssa’s starfighter was already a blur in the sky, and everyone else who’d been ousted from the command center stood in a huddle, talking in low voices. They quieted when Jyn approached. They stood straighter; they looked at her with expectant eyes.

Jyn’s steps slowed; her spine stiffened. She was speaking for Saw, and they knew it, and they respected her for it.

“Reece,” she said, “and Codo.”

The two men broke off from the group. Reece walked with a triumphant bounce in his step. Codo looked nervous, and Jyn realized that he hadn’t been sent on many missions lately.

Saw laid out the mission for the men after Jyn led them to the command center.

“I’ve been tracing that ore for years,” Saw said in a musing tone, mostly to himself. “The Empire has kept even its shipping logs on lockdown. I’ll find a mine, track where the doonium or dolovite is being carted. Split up to refineries. Shipped to worlds for holding. Sent one way, backtracked another. If Id is right and this is where the ore is being shaped into whatever it is the Empire is building, it’s worth checking out.”

They stared at the holo of Tamsye Prime. A Star Destroyer orbited the planet, and beyond that, Jyn could see notes of Imperial outposts surrounding the perimeter of a landmass in the southern hemisphere. A series of manufacturing plants had been developed on the continent, originally by a large family who’d turned the colony into an economically viable endeavor. The family had been bought out by the Empire and lived in luxury on Bespin. The people who’d spent generations working to turn Tamsye Prime into a home for their families toiled under the Empire’s harsher rule. There was only one spaceport, and the only other way off the land mass required sneaking past Imperial troops and then swimming a vast ocean.

“One main access point,” Saw said, pointing to the spaceport. He reached for the holo, blowing up the area so they could see it in greater detail. He scanned the text descriptions attached to the landmarks. “This planet was a player in the Clone Wars,” he growled. “They developed shell munitions for the Republic.”

“Shell munitions?” Jyn asked, surprised. She knew the history of weapons but had never actually fired something that used bullets instead of plasma. Even the flechette launcher used a plasma-based firing mechanism, not something as crude as gunpowder.

Saw grunted. “It wasn’t common but was especially effective for large landmasses. I’ve seen shell ammunition take down a mountainside.” His eyes grew distant, and Jyn knew, at least for a moment, Saw was back in the Clone Wars. “That’s what I can’t get Idryssa to understand,” he said finally.

“What?” Codo asked. He sounded nervous.

“She’s following a cause. She believes in this squadron, the idea of joining forces against the Empire. But people don’t follow an idea.”

“But she’s still fighting the Empire,” Codo protested. “Isn’t that enough to get more people to rise up?”

Jyn shook her head. She thought of the way the others listened to her because she was speaking for Saw. People didn’t follow an idea, not even something as big as fighting the Empire. They followed a person. Someone like Saw.

“So what’s the target objective?” Reece asked, all business.

“Strictly scouting,” Saw said as if the idea was distasteful.

“If her group won’t do this and we’re not getting paid, why bother?” Codo asked.

“Why bother?” Reece snapped back. “Why are you even here?”

Jyn caught Saw’s eyes. She saw the gleam in them, the anticipation. Tamsye Prime held a munitions factory, and the blockade and blacked-out comms were too similar to the other planets Saw had been watching, the ones he suspected were linked to whatever it was her father was working on for the Empire. This mission was just close enough to Saw’s obsession to be too enticing to pass up.

Reece and Codo were still bickering, but they fell silent as Saw spoke. “We need an in,” he said. “If we can get our boots on the ground, we can find a way to get Idryssa the information for her group to launch a larger-scale attack against the Empire.” Jyn could tell he didn’t like working through red tape, but he also didn’t have the manpower to fight a Star Destroyer.

“I could forge us credentials,” Jyn offered. “Go in under the guise of inspecting the plants.”