Star Wars: Rebel Rising(61)

Jyn didn’t bother turning the planet hopper around. It had minimal charges that could be used to break up asteroids; Jyn fired them straight into the hangar wall, clearing a hole through the building. She rode high and hard, heading straight into the sky.

Jyn allowed herself one look down. Akshaya’s little house was on fire.

But they made it out, she told herself. They did.

The walker lurched to life.

Jyn cursed under her breath as the walker’s main cannons swiveled around, aiming straight for her. She spun the little shuttle in a loop, swerving out of range of the blast but almost losing control of the ship in the process. Hadder’s quick flight lessons hadn’t prepared her for a true space chase.

“That was close,” she muttered under her breath.

Jyn looped back around, desperately scanning the ground for signs of Akshaya and Hadder. There. There. They were surrounded by stormtroopers, the cluster of their armor shining like a bright white patch amid the tall grass. Jyn swooped the planet hopper down, aiming straight for the ground. The stormtroopers tried to fire their blasters at the ship, but when Jyn didn’t slow, they scattered like leaves on the wind. Akshaya and Hadder stood their ground, confident that Jyn wouldn’t hit them. Jyn pulled the ship up moments later, and she grinned as she saw Hadder and Akshaya run straight for the hangar and the freighter.

The walker stomped through the grass toward Jyn. Aerial reinforcements would be there in moments, she knew. She could only try to draw away their fire.

She swerved down, moving in zigzags across the sky, maneuvering so it was hard for the slow cannons of the walker to follow. The scanner on the console started beeping, alerting her of more ships approaching. Jyn cursed again, loudly, her heart thudding in her chest, but a small part of her relished this, the chase, the danger. The fear made her feel alive.

An explosion on the ground filled the cockpit window with light. Through the smoke and flames of the overturned walker, Akshaya’s freighter soared into the sky. The freighter had no cannons or guns, so Akshaya had simply rammed the Imperial machine.

“Hopper to freighter, hopper to freighter,” Jyn said, flicking on the comm switch.

“The ship has a name .” Hadder’s voice came over the intercom, as casual and carefree as always. “Ponta One here.”

Jyn whooped at the sound of his voice. “Let’s get out of here, Ponta One ,” she said.

“Copy that, love,” Hadder responded. She could hear the excitement in his voice, the thrill.

And then the TIEs arrived. Five of them, black against the night sky. The scanner came alive, sounding warnings.

“Straight to the port chip’s location,” Jyn shouted into the comlink. “Break atmosphere, jump to lightspeed as soon as you can. Copy?”

“Copy.” Akshaya’s voice was strained, distracted. Jyn’s planet hopper had less power than the freighter, but the freighter hadn’t had a chance to get up to full speed, and it wasn’t as nimble or easy to turn. Jyn swooped in, drawing fire from the TIEs, leading all the ships higher and higher.

Something silver and yellow flashed through the sky, zipping faster than the planet hopper could ever hope to go. Jyn grinned. She recognized the Y-wings from holos Idryssa had shown her. Xosad may have been in one of those ships, his so-called rebels in the others. At least five, drawing fire away from the civilian ships and Skuhl. A dogfight broke out, distracting the TIEs.

The Empire tried to hail both the planet hopper and the freighter, but Jyn didn’t reply and the open comlink told her Akshaya didn’t, either.

Laser fire streaked past Jyn’s cockpit, a bright light against the blackness of space as she burst out of Skuhl’s atmosphere. Beeping rang through the open comlink. Moments later, the TIEs and Y-wings streaked up and out, swarming like wasps, a blur of light and metal, yellow and black.

“Ponta One , you okay?” Jyn screamed into the mic.

“Go, go, go!” Hadder’s voice urged her forward.

“It’s getting hot out here,” Akshaya said. A plasma blast fired close to Jyn, too close for comfort. She couldn’t tell if it had been a stray shot from one of the Y-wings or a failed shot from a TIE, and she didn’t want to stick around to find out.

Behind her, something exploded. The force of it pushed her little shuttle faster, but she was already slipping into hyperspace, the blue-gray light filling the cockpit window.

She had escaped.





IMPERIAL DETENTION CENTER & LABOR CAMP LEG-817

LOCATION: Wobani

PRISONER: Liana Hallik, #6295A

CRIMES: Forgery of Imperial Documents, Resisting Arrest, Posession of an Unsanctioned Weapon, Aggravated Assault





Jyn’s cellmate, Zorahda, curled up in the tightest ball she could manage. Her soft white hair was matted and dirty, and her big yellow eyes were on Jyn.

Jyn rolled over, but she could still feel Zorahda’s gaze.

“What?” Jyn hissed at her cellmate.

Zorahda blinked. “How do you know?” she asked.

“Know what?” Jyn said in a low voice.

They waited while a stormtrooper patrolled the hall, his boots thudding on the metal floor. Jyn counted his steps until she couldn’t hear them anymore.

“Know what?” she repeated.

Zorahda’s look was sorrowful. “When to give up.” Her voice pitched a notch higher as she looked down at her own body, her knees pushed against the top of the cubby, her legs bent stiffly, her back curling just to fit her massive frame into the cramped space. “I’m old ,” she said. A sob choked her voice. “And my sentence is long.”