AN: I'm thinking of adding in some ideas from the deleted scenes of Rogue One that we never got to see...Think that would be cool to sprinkle in this book? It'd be pretty badass to have a TIE Fighter confrontation scene! 

Exiting the building turned out to be a horrible idea.

Multiple AT-ST walkers and TIE maulers stood between them and their ship. There was a brief moment where the gray and black vehicles stared them down in complete silence. The AT-ST walkers stood tall and thin, compared to the wide and heavy TIE maulers. The maulers looked exactly like TIE Fighters, but with heavy tank treads instead of wings. Talia had never seen designs of the vehicle before, and not knowing what they could do in combat was a terrifying thought.

The two rebels set off in a starting run. Cassian held his blaster close to him as Talia aided him in running. Cassian's stitches tugged at every movement; he couldn't wait to sit back in his comfy pilot's chair to rest his wound.

The Imperial vehicles shot at the pair, missing them by a few feet. The vehicles creaked and squealed as the gears moved. The red bolts fired, one after the other, slowly inching closer to one-hundred percent accuracy.

Talia felt the heat of the cannon blasts as they hit the sand seven feet away from them. Sand and dirt flew up and rained down upon the two. She looked at the chicken walkers and the tanks, then back at Cassian. They were only almost halfway to the freighter. The Imperials were bound to hit their targets with precision soon. She unhooked his arm from over her shoulders, and kept up her pace. She took a deep breath, and didn't hesitate to make this next call, "Keep going. I'll meet you there."

"What? Are you insane?" Cassian glanced over at her as he ran. He clutched his wound, barely grazing it with the fabric of his shirt. His body ached all over, but he had to force himself to make it.

They were almost underneath the chicken walkers now. They would have to move around them to get passed safely. Talia shook her head and switched sides with him. She continued to explain briefly, "Two targets increases our chances of survival. Get to the ship. I'll run the other way."

Cassian shot a few times at the vehicles, only to get nearly shot back in response. He could hear yelling from afar. The Imperials must've alerted the academy. Now the cadets have to join the battle, or get thrown out of the Empire. He grit his teeth to push the pain away. "You're going to die out there." That would not be an option. She was his responsibility, and he would not let the senators down.

Only, Talia thought the same way about him.

"The Rebellion needs you more. Now go!" Talia ushered him towards the freighter as she veered off into another direction, right in front of the Imperials. She fired her blaster at the vehicles, gaining their attention. She jumped and dodged as best she could, avoiding the cannons' fire.

"Talia!" Cassian yelled, his legs still pushing towards the freighter. His dark eyes were locked on Talia and the vehicles. Mierda! He cursed in his mind. Talia had done something so courageous in order to get him to safety. His heart felt light at her act of pure protection and selflessness. No one had done that for him before, and it felt so welcoming, considering she hardly knew him.

A pilot's voice rose up from Cassian's communicator, which lit up yellow when someone talked, "We're going to get destroyed out there! Those anti-aircraft turrets need to be taken out!" Blaster fire sounded off in the background, and the screams of storm troopers echoed off of the walls of the hangar. Panic was clear in the man's voice, "We can't hold the hangar much longer!"

Cassian grabbed the communicator with his free hand and responded urgently, "I'm on it. Give me two minutes!"

Adrenaline refreshed Cassian's body, and eased his pain for another moment in time. Was it better for Talia to go out this way, rather than getting killed by Imperial troops back on Kuat if she got found out? Was it painless this way? She seemed so resolute in her decision, so maybe... Cassian's thoughts rolled around in his mind, creating more and more questions by the second.

None of them eased his conscious.

He raced to the flight controls, turning on the ship and putting on the communications headset quickly. The screams coming from the other side of the comms channel only heightened his urgency to get off the ground. Cassian tried not to move his side too much as he frantically reached for the controls to make the ship take flight.

The anti-aircraft turrets immediately emerged from the corners of the buildings once they noticed Cassian fly into the air. The medium-sized round turrets raised their guns at the ship, but saw it as Imperial owned. They reverted back to resting position, waiting for unsuspecting ships to fly out from the X-Wing hangar.

Cassian fired the ship's cannons at the turrets, blowing a few up on impact. He nodded his head, answering the orders that trailed through his mind. He focused on the next few turrets, maneuvering through the turret's blasts as they aimed for him.

Aim. Hit. Destroyed.

"Get ready to take off," he ordered over comms to the squadron as he took out the last few turrets. He glanced down towards the battlegrounds, subconsciously searching for Talia.

The sharp firing of the vehicle cannons sounded so far away. The booming of laser impacts on the sand vibrated the earth under Talia's feet as she sprinted. All she could hear vividly was the thunder of her heartbeat. Her feet pounded against the earth; her legs burned from all the energy she was using up. She fired her blaster blindly at the vehicles to keep their attention on her.

Talia slid to a stop when she saw storm troopers and cadets headed in her direction. Her hand clawed at the sand below her to gain traction, and she quickly jerked in the other direction. One of the tanks fired. The blast impacted in the dirt behind Talia, and sent her flying. She hit the ground hard, and rolled to a stop, her body unmoving.

Urgency shot through Cassian's system. He shouted without thinking, "No!" Was it quick? Is she in agony? She risks her life to save me, and this is the end she gets? Cassian's thoughts formed a runaway train, which only made him focus harder on clearing the battlefield. Talia's actions had to be worth something.

The X-Wings broke out of the hangar, twirling up into the air for the first time. Streaks of gray smoke from the engines mixed with the air. The higher the X-Wings got, the more the smoke froze into small ice crystals. The air cooled the hot smoke too quickly, and that's how it reacted. Cassian stared at the sight for a moment, amazed and excited simultaneously at such a feat of technology. The Senators will love these.

The AT-ST walkers and TIE maulers aimed their sights at the new ships and attacked. The bolts flew into the sky, and almost hit their targets, but the X-Wings flew too fast. This was something new. The Empire hadn't faced ships like these before. The TIE fighters were always on their side. Now, the Rebellion found their own ships that matched that speed and agility.

The ground forces joined in on the battle, shooting up and firing in sync with one another. Sirens went off from the academy, and pilots were shipping off in TIE fighters to join the action. The X-Wings scattered, flying off in different directions to avoid enemy fire.

The TIE fighters soon caught up, and a dogfight began. There were blasts going left and right. Blurs of red and green bolts showered the sky. Imperials shot up from down on the ground, and yelled orders to hold position. Cassian rained on their parade and shot in a straight line to scatter their forces. The other pilots yelled for help over comms as they frantically hit buttons on the consoles. The fear took over as all of them realized that they knew nothing about these ships and how to use them to their full potential.

Cassian focused on the TIE fighters for a moment, but realized this was all too much. They may have gone in way over their heads on this mission. Either that, or they underestimated the surrounding Imperial outposts that would be present. "You need to get the ships back to base," Captain Andor called out on comms.

"We need to get them off our tails first, Captain." One of the pilots frantically steered his ship downwards in an attempt to escape, and barely managed to avoid hitting Incom's building.

Another pilot screamed at almost being hit by TIE fighter shots. The pilots attempted to regroup, but was forced to go their own separate ways. A dozen more TIEs rose from the hangar at the academy and headed their direction. The ground forces' fire wouldn't let up. Possible solutions coursed through Cassian's mind, but most ended in their demise.

A voice rose on comms amongst all the chaos, "Looks like your squad is having a blast! Need a hand?" Captain Antilles flew out of orbit and onto Fresia's atmosphere. He piloted the Sundered Heart, a heavily modified CR90 Corvette, and was accompanied by other Rebel Corvettes.

Some ships dropped low to the ground, allowing the rebels to depart and start to push back the ground forces. Rebel commanders yelled and forced their men to surge forward through the oncoming blasts. Imperials held their ground, and immediately dug in to prepare for the battle. Grenades were chucked by rebels in a frenzy of throws, catching the Imperials off guard. Some storm troopers ran backwards to avoid the explosions, while some cadets froze, shaking in their boots.

Once the ground forces were secure, the Corvettes rose and joined the dogfight. TIE fighters scrambled and tried to pair together to take them on, but they were quickly met with offense. The rebels soared through the sky and focused their fire on the TIEs, hitting some and missing others. The pilots in the X-Wings cheered as the battle turned the tide.

"It's good to see you've finally joined the party, Captain Antilles," Cassian declared with gratitude. There's always hope. He nearly smiled, until he remembered Talia was still laying on the battlefield, possibly lifeless. He leaned forward in his seat and called out urgently, "I have an agent down there that needs help! I need someone on the ground to help her back onto my ship!"

An affirmative came from the commander of the ground forces. A small team branched off from the massive herd of fire-frenzy rebels, and headed towards the spot where Talia lay. Cassian shielded the group, blasting away any Imperial ground forces that advanced. He tried hard not to flinch at all of the death and destruction. War came with many casualties. This is for the cause. He never stopped to question his devotion.

The group of soldiers turned Talia over to find her conscious, but shaking. "I stayed still so they wouldn't kill me...I..." she trailed off, her voice breaking towards the end. The bombs, the blasts, the screaming, all of it sounded so distant. She felt the vibrations course through the ground and shake the planet. She had made it, and she couldn't believe it.

She looked up at the rebels, who were yelling at her to get up. One of them held their hand out, and she took it. Talia whimpered and hissed when they pulled her up, and quickly set her hand on her burning leg. The rebels aided her into the ship, then took off to fight in the close battle.

Talia stumbled into the ship as Cassian took off into the air to avoid land vehicle blasts. She held onto the walls until she managed to find her way to the copilot's seat. Sand covered her clothes and stuck to her hair. Her brown eyes stared straight forward as her hands shook in her lap.

Cassian spoke up, more bitterly than he intended to sound, "I thought you were dead."

I thought so too, for a moment there... She hid a groan from the sharp turn he made, and rested for a second. Must've twisted my leg during the blast...Straighten up. Worry about it later. Not in front of him. She brushed the sand off and noticed small parts of her clothes had been burnt off by the blast. Nothing too revealing. Unfortunate for her clothes, though.

Her hands grabbed hold of the cannon's controls. If she could shift her focus to the battle, she'd be okay. "What? Would you miss me?" She teased, glancing over at him with a sly, but shaky, smile. When Cassian mumbled something to himself she couldn't hear, she moved on and asked something else, "What's on the agenda now?"

"Escaping." He switched over to the communications line, "We need to get the X-Wings out of here. Can you handle things from here, Antilles?" Cassian almost flew into a group of TIE fighters, barely scraping by them as he turned the ship. Talia almost pointed it out, until he put his hand out as if he didn't want to hear it. She lifted the corners of her lips in a small, playful smile; it disappeared as quickly as it formed.

Static came over the line for a second. Then, Captain Antilles' voice rose up, "I hear you loud and clear, Captain Andor. We can finish this fight. Take the prototypes back to base. We'll meet you there."

Cassian pointed at two TIE fighters that were headed their way. Now that he had a copilot, all he had to do was focus on not crashing. The TIE fighters got closer and made the shrill, annoying sound they always made. He directed the ship as Talia quickly launched ion bolts at them. The TIE fighters lost power, and slowly started to dwindle to the ground. The pilots ejected out of the ship before the ships hit the ground, protecting themselves from death.

A surge of excitement swept through Talia, and she cheered, "Woo-hoo!" She smiled widely, and glanced over at Cassian. For a second, all of her pain had extinguished. "What was that, Cass? I won't be able to hit an enemy ship? I think not!"

Cassian scoffed, "They got too close. You almost got us killed."

Talia fed off of the positive energy she received. "I still won the bet."

"You won fifty credits."

"And I got to prove you wrong," she stated matter-of-factly.

Eh, it was fifty credits. Could've been worse. Cassian thought to himself. He had lost way more money than that in all kinds of bets. At least now it would help one of his fellow rebels, and not the scum of the universe. "Which won't happen again."

"Never say never, Captain."

The Allanar N3 Light Freighter shot up higher into the air to join in the midst of air battle. TIE fighters charged at the X-Wing prototypes, aiming to destroy them. If the Empire couldn't save them, then they would be converted to salvage. The fighters attacked Captain Antilles and his squadron of corvettes. Green and red cannon bolts flew through the air, cutting through clouds and smoke. A rebel corvette sailed through the air, until it was impacted by three green bolts. The rebel screamed over comms; the ship blew up shortly after, silencing his cries. The explosion disoriented rebel ships in close proximity. The debris rained down onto the roaring battle below.

Rebel troops yelled out orders and surged across the battlefield. Blasters were shot from both sides. Extremely hot laser rounds sun into the Imperials and Rebels, their bodies falling to the ground. No sound or screams could be heard, for the guns shots and feet stomping against the sand overshadowed it.

The pilots of the X-Wings flew in diamond formation, and tore through unsuspecting TIE pilots. Their tension had eased now that backup had arrived. Cheers and orders could be heard over their communications line. One of the pilots exclaimed, "The other pilots are going to love these beauties!"

Cassian blinked his eyes a few times and pushed a few buttons on the dash with a shaky hand. "X-Wing squadron, head back to base before the Tyranny arrives," he ordered, trying to keep from sounding disoriented. When he got an affirmative, they all flew into orbit, and set off into hyperspace towards Dantooine.

Letting go of the controls, Talia placed her hands in her lap. She stared forward silently, watching the stars blur together into a bright blue light. She listened to Cassian's shallow breathing for a second, and noticed he had fallen silent, too. She glanced over curiously to see him leaning back in his chair, slowly losing consciousness. "Cass?" She reached over to move his arm, but he fainted from exhaustion and fell out of his chair.