Star Wars: Rebel Rising(60)

That night, there was no meeting.

Dasa was gone. The foremen were gone. Imperial technicians now ran the refinery.

“I have all the critical documents from the ship,” Jyn said, holding up her datapad. She downloaded information into two different port chips and slid one over to Akshaya. “I’ve forged clearance slips for the freighter and the planet hopper,” she continued. “It won’t be perfect, but it should enable you to at least confuse whatever blockade the Empire’s set up around Skuhl and give you a chance to escape. We’ll split up. You take the freighter; I’ll take the hopper.” The planet hopper only had a simple hyperdrive that couldn’t handle more than a small jump, and without a navicomputer she would have to input the coordinates with the port chip. Jyn was still no pilot, but she knew enough about the little ship to get where she needed to go, and she knew Akshaya would never agree to be separated from her son.

Akshaya stared down at the chip. “They’re not gone,” she said finally. “Dasa and the others.”

Jyn looked at Hadder, at the empty kitchen.

“They’re not here,” Akshaya conceded, “but they’re not gone. I’m sure the Empire has them on a ship, for negotiations. Or something,” she added lamely.

“Why are we splitting up?” Hadder asked Jyn.

“We need to start over. It’ll be easier to do with two ships instead of one.” Jyn slid her datapad over to him, showing him the system she’d preprogrammed into the port chip, along with their forged clearance codes. The Five Points system was close enough to Skuhl for the planet hopper to handle but had no mining or refinery resources that would interest the Empire. Furthermore, the entire system was littered with space debris, forcing ships to limp along from planet to planet in a series of short and inconvenient sublight speed routes. It was the perfect place to hide. There were five inhabitable planets, but Jyn had set the coordinates to the space station in the center. They could decide where to go from there.

Hadder took the port chip that his mother refused. He nodded at Jyn grimly.

“Tomorrow,” Jyn said.

“We’ll be ready,” Hadder replied, even as his mother tried to say it wouldn’t be necessary.



Most of what Jyn needed she wore—the knife Saw had given her in her boot, the kyber crystal her mother had given her around her neck, the scarf to keep it hidden. Her satchel, stuffed with a few changes of clothes, a medkit, ration cubes. Only what she could carry.

It was too similar to Lah’mu. All of it. The stormtroopers. The fear. It was a nightmarish repetition of when her first family, her last home was taken away.

She planned to leave at dawn.

She hadn’t planned on the stormtroopers attacking at midnight.



The door was kicked in. Jyn, already dressed, scrambled up. She cracked open her bedroom door.

“What is the meaning of this?” Akshaya cried, running forward. Hadder followed.

“We have reports that you are harboring a person of interest to the Empire,” the stormtrooper said, his voice ringing.

“Are you saying my son is of interest to the Empire?” Akshaya asked, drawing Hadder closer to her.

“Someone of the name Jyn, last name unknown. Possible ties to a terrorist cell.”

Jyn gently closed the door of her room. The only window was set high in the wall, and narrow, but she could squeeze through it. Akshaya was buying her time. She heard Hadder and Akshaya arguing with the stormtroopers, but before she was all the way out the window, she also heard the sound of smashing furniture and more doors being broken down.

Jyn threw herself out of the narrow window, landing on the ground outside with a thud. She sucked in her breath but didn’t make another sound. Stormtroopers were patrolling the perimeter of Akshaya’s house and the hangar.

Through the open window, Jyn heard a stormtrooper reporting in. “She was here.”

Jyn crouched under the window. How much did they know? It must have been Xosad. He had been so obvious that he was recruiting for an anti-Imperial group. And his little outburst as she left—definitely overheard. Maybe they thought she was working with him and his freedom fighters.

Or maybe they knew….

She clutched her kyber crystal necklace through her shirt. They didn’t know. They couldn’t.

She heard footsteps—heavy, armored footsteps—making their way around the house.

No time to think. No time for regrets. She couldn’t just sit and wait to be found. There was no Saw to save her this time.

Jyn leapt up and darted through the long grass toward the hangar. The walker was still positioned near the entrance, but it was powered down and, Jyn hoped, empty. She ran through its legs, making straight for the door.

“Hey! Stop!” a stormtrooper shouted.

Blaster fire marred the door seconds after Jyn dove through it. So much for reaching the ship unnoticed.

Jyn hoped Akshaya and Hadder would take the opportunity she was about to give them. And she hoped whoever controlled the walker was still asleep.

The hangar door burst open as Jyn dashed up the gangway of the planet hopper. She yanked the port chip out of her pocket, then initiated the launch sequence of the ship. Blaster fire scarred the boarding ramp as she raised it. Jyn flicked on the rocket boosters, spraying fire. She couldn’t hear the screams of the stormtroopers that had been rushing her, but she imagined them being cut short by the blasts.