chapter thirty-eight

       IT WAS A SHAME the Empire chose such a beautiful location as their energy source. Battle was bound to break as soon as the alliance was discovered, and Amora wasn't looking forward to destroying a peaceful ecosystem. Maybe in the past she wouldn't have cared, but now she saw the battlegrounds for more than their tactile benefits. She wished she could've been here for enjoyment instead of war.

       The forest was an incredibly lush destination that was too quiet and calm for violence. Beams of sunlight shone through the leafy canopies and lit the trails in a delicate afternoon glow. The fine breeze that played with tree branches gently passed through Amora's hair to dance with the grass, creating a natural whistling that was hardly noticeable amongst the faint, distant sounds of animals. Endor was delightful.

       After landing the shuttle on a hill a little ways away from the Imperial base, the strike team was on the move. They had unloaded from the ship, grabbing weapons and passing out camouflage, and now marched in a silent, single-file line down the makeshift path on full alert. Amora hiked behind Leia and in front of Luke in a position practically at the front of the line.

       She was feeling more comfortable with her role within the rebellion again. Perhaps all she needed was to jump into the action after a terribly long break. And she was especially comfortable now as she admired the forestry surrounding the rebels. It was gorgeous like Naboo and reminded her of just how pretty the galaxy could be. Though as the team was led deeper into possible enemy territory, she became more and more focused on the potential looming threats that could be hiding behind the trees. Han carefully ventured at the very front of the group as a lookout, motioning signals to everyone to keep the team in line and stealthy. This part of the woods was too dangerous for mistakes.

       All of a sudden, Han halted in his tracks. He waved his arm down, indicating to the others that it was time to hide. Imperials must've been close. Amora glanced behind her and watched the stretched line of rebels duck immediately and prepare their weapons. Still facing the back, she made eye contact with Luke, who nodded subtly and nudged his head forward. Amora pressed her lips together and followed Han and Leia up the hill with Luke and Chewie in tow.

       Han led them up to a miniature drop-off atop a hill that had a wide view of a clearing down below. Amora hid behind the hill with the others and raised her head just enough to spot the Imperial surveillance. Two troopers in untraditional armor were wandering around the clearing in search of rebel activity, a pair speeder bikes parked at the edge of the trees. It wasn't a lot, but it was an obstacle nonetheless.

       "Should we try and go around?" Leia asked while peering over the ledge.

       "It'll take time," Luke sighed.

       Amora bit her lip. They didn't have time. Who knows how long it'll take before the Death Star becomes operational.

       "This whole party'll be for nothing if they see us," Han countered.

       Amora eyed the troopers for a few more seconds then looked back. "We can take 'em out. No problem."

       "You really think so?" Leia mused as the troopers continued searching the area.

       "Doesn't matter what I think," she answered with a flitting look between the three of them, almost asking for permission.

       Chewie purred softly and nodded his head largely, instantly agreeing. Han appeared to be thinking when the Wookiee answered, turning to him before turning back to Amora.

       "Chewie and I will take care of this," he volunteered suddenly, standing up sooner than anyone could protest. "You stay here."

       Amora raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything. She hoped he had a plan.

       "Quietly," Luke reminded. "There might be more of them out there."

       "Hey..." Han began with a proud smirk. "It's me!"

       Cockily, he turned away from the trio and snuck down the hill with Chewie. Luke and Leia chuckled at the same time while Amora rolled her eyes at his confidence. With an attitude like that, he better pull this off.

       They patiently waited for the two to heroically appear and for Han to prove his skills, but at first, there was no sign of him. The troopers still scanned their land coverage to no avail. But when Han popped out from behind a random tree and began chasing one of them stupidly, Amora wished there was still no sign of him. He trailed behind the trooper with a risky proximity, and she was faced with the fact that Han probably wasn't the best choice to pull this off.

       "Why did we trust him to do this again?" she sighed, watching the comically bad idea unfold.

       Leia shook her head miserably. "We didn't."

       "It'll work," Luke promised softly.

       Amora cringed as Han nearly tripped over nothing.

       "Glad someone thinks so..." she spoke thoughtlessly.

       Not that she didn't trust Han's wild plans! It could work! She was hoping for the best. But being a trooper's shadow wasn't how she expected him to "take care of it quietly." And sure enough, ignoring Luke's advice, Han did not take care of it quietly. His plan, whatever it was, went awry when he stepped on a particularly loud twig, the sudden snap revealing his presence. The shocked trooper jerked around and slapped him with surprising strength into a trunk, someone's blaster going off in the process.

       Amora squeezed her eyes shut and scrunched her nose. So close...

       The trooper flailed around and screamed to his friend. "Go for help! Go!"

       Luke sighed and grabbed Amora's hand. "Great. Come on."

       Pulling her up, the three of them fled from their hiding place and scurried down the ledge to help Han. If the troopers managed to escape, the alliance would be in big trouble with the rest of the Empire.

       "That didn't work, Luke!" she whisper-shouted as she jumped over a cluster of rocks.

       "Yeah, yeah," he mumbled in annoyance.

       They made it down to the clearing in no time, but also with no time to spare. The troopers had to be killed. Amora located Han, who was busy in a fight, and touched her blaster without thinking. Though she dropped her hand just as quickly, remembering that they couldn't make any more noise then they already had. Shooting would make things worse. And either way, Han should have it covered (maybe).

       "Over there! Two more of them!" Leia suddenly yelled, running past her without hesitation.

       Amora heard the troopers before she saw them. The engines of Imperial speeder bikes whirred to life and zipped away from the clearing a little distance away. She didn't bother thinking, instead racing behind Leia speedily. They were intent on reaching the remaining pair of bikes that belonged to Han's troopers.

       "I see them! Wait, Leia!" she heard Luke cry out from behind her, but the girl was already too far.

       Leia had made it there first, hopping up and zooming into the deep unknowns of the woodsy planet. Amora lagged a few seconds behind her but eventually ran up to the speeder and pushed up onto the seat, except she didn't take off immediately. She extended her hand backwards for Luke, who just barely showed up on time, and grasped his arm to pull him up onto the bike before she left. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist as she slammed on the engine in order to catch up to Leia.

       Amora had forgotten just how exciting, good or bad, that riding one of these could be. The trees blurred into messy streaks of green and brown that she tried her best to ignore, keeping her vision strictly straight. There was a pit in her stomach at the thought of just how dangerous this was, especially with Luke pressed right up against her, yet she didn't mind. She just followed the exact route of Leia who was gaining speed with every second. Amora rushed forward with a burst of adrenaline to get closer to her and take out the troopers.

       "Quick, Jam their comlink! Center switch!" Luke instructed.

       Amora didn't need to glance down at the panel to flip it off. She was familiar with this model of speeder bike and had fixed quite a few stolen ones (and ridden some) with the rebellion. She slammed on the switch without looking and hurried forward, sailing underneath a giant log and curving over rocks. At this point, they were right next to Leia and were nearly touching the troopers.

       "Move closer!"

       She did that, but Amora took that instruction a little too seriously when she shot ahead with one final push, accidentally gritting the nose of her speeder with the tail of the trooper's. She cringed at the scraping noise that erupted from the contact.

       "Maybe not so close!" Luke worriedly exclaimed.

       She pulled back to loosen the connection and dodged several low hanging branches by dipping further to the ground and rising back up. The trooper was trying to sprint away while she was occupied, increasing the distance between them.

       "Get alongside that one!"

       She did as he said, accelerating to match the trooper's position and rode uncomfortably close to the enemy. Fortunately, Amora could guess what he had in mind.

       "Please don't fall..." she muttered to him, trying to stay as steady as possible.

       But she couldn't stay too steady when the trooper tried to ram into them and knock the vehicle off balance. He did it five times with no results, which wasn't helping Luke in any way. She knew he could make the jump just fine, but it's not like it was easy.

       Before she knew it, Amora felt a push-off from her bike that let her know Luke jumped across the gap, except last time she checked, the trooper was still on board. There was a brief scuffling between them, and when she glanced back over, the trooper was suddenly gone and Luke had full control of the bike.

       "You good?" Amora shouted over the pounding forces of wind.

       "Never better," he responded simply. "C'mon, Leia's up ahead."

       And with that, they carried on with the ride.

       While bolting through the forest, a mechanical sound was heard behind, which couldn't be a good sign. The two troopers were in front of Leia, not back here. Curiously, Amora peered over her shoulder and snapped back in one safe movement. In her brief scan, she clearly made out four extra troopers hunting them down.

       How many of them are around here?

       As they drew closer, Amora yelled to Luke. "I'll lead some of them away!"

       Without waiting for confirmation that anyone heard her, Amora jerked her bike to the right and shot off into a thin passage separated by closely grown trunks. She drifted a bit to the left so as to not travel too far away from the troopers and still stay in their view, flying down a route almost parallel to the original course. With only a few precious seconds wasted while speeding solo away from Luke and Leia, two of the troopers finally veered in her direction and chased down Amora. They were experienced riders, that was for sure, yet not experienced enough.

       She braked her bike, allowing herself to fall behind the pair that raced forward as if she was still in front. Now behind them, close enough to take them out, she hit the button to blast them out of the air... which didn't happen...

       Oh no.

       When the bike's nose had scraped up against the trooper's earlier, that must've caused damage to the blaster cannon! Not to mention she didn't know how old these bikes were! The 74-Z model wasn't exactly the newest on the market. She'd have to make do with the supplies she had.

       When she felt in control of the vehicle and the forest was less thick, Amora dropped her hand from the handle and unclipped her blaster from her belt. She lifted it cautiously and took aim at the troopers that couldn't seem to decide whether they wanted to kill her or escape. She then fired four direct lasers that were able to take out the trooper on the left. He wasn't paying enough attention to avoid them. The unmanned bike spun out of control into a large tree and exploded with great force.

       One down, one to go.

       The last trooper wasn't as easy, however. He kept shifting around and dodging her blasts. Respectable, but frustrating. Also, he had pulled out his own blaster and was firing periodic shots at her. If she was lucky, he would crash because he wasn't watching where he was driving. But Amora wasn't lucky right now. She happened to be the complete unluckiest, actually. One of his blaster lasers came at her with unusual accuracy, and she gasped. Amora wasn't shot (not including the small streak of blood from the laser that skimmed the top of her hand), but her blaster couldn't say the same. There was a clean hole shot into the barrel, effectively ruining the weapon.

       You can't shoot me but you can shoot that?!

       Now there were no supplies for Amora to work with, which left only one option. She revved her engine and darted forward until she rode side by side with the trooper. She hoped that he wasn't expecting it, ramming into his bike in an attempt to knock him off balance, but he apparently was expecting her. His blaster was still out and ready, pointed at her quickly. Though her ramming may have not knocked him off the bike, it did mess up his aim. Instead of hitting her, his three shot lasers blasted into the bike, unfortunately into the heart of the engine.

       Her eyes widened when she heard a sudden rumbling. In a panic, Amora clutched onto the forearm of the trooper next to her and leapt off the back of her bike, yanking him along with her. Before they even touched the ground, an awful explosion rang out when her bike's engine ruptured, doubling the sound when the second bike also blew up from the close contact. Amora hit the ground smoothly and swiftly rolled up into a standing position. The blaster that she still gripped onto fiercely took aim at the dazed trooper and shot. The laser planted in his head, causing him to crumble down in a painful-looking way.

       We've already made so much noise, she thought while heaving. What's one shot more?

       Clipping the blaster back to her belt, Amora grabbed the dead trooper's arm and dragged him into a tall section of grass next to a nearby tree trunk. If any Imperial scouts were to come by, they didn't need to see any evidence that the rebels were here. She dropped the body with a thud and huffed as she looked at the forest around her. Now Amora was stranded in the middle of nowhere by herself with no transportation.

       Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

       With nothing but blind faith to bring her back to the alliance, Amora turned around and retraced her steps, praying to the Force that it was the right way.

~ ☼ ~

author's note -

hi! hope u enjoyed this one. its kinda hard to add interesting stuff into action scenes so i hope it turned out well! lifes been crazy but i rly enjoy writing so im glad i have this book and u guys to turn to when i want a break and stuff. we're getting real close to the end now and ah im so excited to finish! cant believe its been a year already. anyways yeah if u like what ur reading then consider voting or commenting and bye for now! :)