pov. Omega

"Come on," I held out my hand to Kix to help him up, "we should get out of here." Even though this planet was not important, it was still in the first order's territory. I didn't want to risk us staying here too long and running into one of their patrols.

The trooper gratefully took my outstretched hand and let me pull him up. But as soon as he was on his feet, they immediately buckled again. To avoid landing on the ground again immediately, he clung to my arm. I had to use all my strength to keep Kix on his feet and not land on the ground with him. Even though he had been trapped in this cryochamber for many years, he had hardly lost any of his original weight. "Guys, some help?" I looked at my two friends with a look of encouragement.

Jason nodded, walked over to us with two big steps and put Kix's other arm over his shoulder. With his free hand, he handed me my bow, which I stowed on my back, and my helmet, which I put on.

"It's all right, mate," Jason said reassuringly to Kix, who had tensed up again under his touch, "we'll get you out of here." His voice sounded a little muffled through his helmet.

Kix nodded weakly. I only hoped he would make it to the Marauder. Through all the sand and over the dunes. I started walking in unison with Jason in the direction of the exit. Poe walked a few paces ahead of us with his blaster drawn, scouting the path to make sure we weren't surprised by local scavengers. Kix tried to stay on his feet as best he could. But the further we went, the less successful he was. His breathing became heavier and heavier, as if he had a battle behind him.

After a few minutes, we arrived at the exit of the cruiser. Poe was already waiting for us and kept peering into the distance and up into the sky. His brow furrowed.

"What's going on?" Jason adjusted the arm on his shoulder and looked at his boyfriend questioningly through the visor of his helmet.

Poe tilted his head slightly to the side "I don't know. Just a gut feeling." His gaze flitted to the sky again, "But I don't like it, we should hurry." Without waiting for an answer, he left the cruiser, leaving deep imprints of his boots in the sand with his first step.

I bit my lower lip. Even though I found it hard to admit this, I should listen to Poe's gut feeling. It wasn't nearly as pronounced as it was with the Jedi. Poe was by no means Force-sensitive. But there had been one or two situations where Poe's intuition had saved our lives. I looked worriedly at Kix, who was in no shape to walk any faster.

The trooper seemed to have sensed my gaze and raised his head "I'll manage," he murmured quietly, looking resolutely out into the desert.

I had to smile slightly. I forgot about the fighting spirit in each of my brothers "It's not far." I assured Kix, nodded to Jason and pulled Kix out into the sun together with him.
A soft cry of pain escaped the brown-haired man as his eyes met the sunlight again after decades of darkness. Blinded, he squeezed his eyes shut and clung disorientedly to my shoulder. Before I could even think about how I could help him, I heard a hiss.
Jason had removed his helmet and was putting it over Kix's head. As always, when he took off his helmet, his black hair was sticking out of his head in a criss-cross pattern.
As soon as the helmet protected his sensitive eyes from the sunlight, Kix loosened his grip on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he mumbled quietly through the helmet.

I looked at him sympathetically, "It's all right." After my time on Tantiss, I had often clung to my brothers with such strength after my nightmares that they would get bruises because I thought I was there again.

Suddenly seeing nothing must have reminded him of the cryochamber.
I nodded to Jason and we started to catch up to Poe. We didn't make it five steps before I heard a familiar sound in the distance. It was still quiet, barely audible. But it was unmistakably the sound of an approaching TIE fighter. Despite the heat of the desert surrounding me, I felt freezing cold. Beside me, Jason tensed and drew his blaster.
It was the first order. No one else flew fighters like this anymore. They were remnants of the Empire. But improved. The Empire's TIE fighters had no heavy weapons systems and no hyperdrive, the First Order's had both.

Poe stood on the crest of a dune a few meters in front of us. "Come on, hurry up!" he shouted and waved his arm.
That snapped me out of my daze. We only had to make it as far as the Marauder, as soon as I was in my ship I could lose them, but out here, without any cover, we were as good as dead.
Kix also seemed to hear the noise now "What is that?" he raised his head weakly and searched for the unfamiliar sound. How was he supposed to know it? The TIE fighters had been developed by the Empire.

I didn't answer him, but started to run. Together with Jason, I dragged Kix through the sand as fast as I could. Poe dropped back to us and ran alongside Jason with his blaster drawn.
The pilot hadn't spotted us yet. But he was getting closer and closer. I kept glancing hastily back over my shoulder. I spotted the outline of the fighter on the horizon. Pitch black as it was, it stood out clearly against the brown sand of the dunes. It was coming straight towards us. Desperately, I turned my gaze forward again. The Marauder was still too far away. We would never make it in time.

"Poe take over for me!" Jason looked at his boyfriend urgently.
Poe followed the request without much resistance and put Kix's arm over his shoulder. "What are you up to?" He looked at Jason questioningly, but also worriedly.
The black-haired man pressed a quick kiss to Poe's forehead "I'll distract them, meet me at the Marauder!" With these words, he activated his jetpack and shot off into the sky. His hair fluttered in the wind. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him draw his second blaster and fly towards the first order fighter. Just before he collided with the ship, he fired several blaster shots. They bounced off the armor without any effect. But he had achieved what he wanted. The pilot changed course and followed him. Jason kept turning screws in the air and skillfully dodged the fighter's blaster fire. After just a few seconds, he disappeared behind the next dune.

Poe stared up at the sky in horror, "Has he gone mad?" he muttered quietly.
I just shrugged my shoulders "Jason can take care of himself." Of course I was worried about my best friend too, but right now it was important to get to the Marauder "Come on, we have to get to the Marauder."

Poe tore his gaze away from the sky and we ran as fast as we could towards my ship with Kix between us. Again and again we could hear blaster fire in the distance. Kix was getting heavier and heavier. I wasn't even sure if he was still conscious.
It felt like an eternity had passed when the Marauder finally came into view. I hastily pulled the key from my belt and unlocked my home.

As soon as I entered the ship, I emptied one of the bunks "Put Kix there!" I told Poe as I rushed into the cockpit. My fingers flew routinely over the buttons. One by one, I pressed them down until the engines started up. I grabbed my comm from my belt, "Jason, we're at the Marauder," I radioed to him as I pressed a button to close the loading ramp and launched.

"Good," came the rushing reply, "I think he's starting to get pretty pissed off." I could hear the screech of the TIE fighter and blaster fire in the background.
Poe popped up next to me and rested one hand on my headrest, "Hang on, we're on our way." He settled into the copilot seat and anxiously scanned the sky for Jason's silver armor.
I turned a screw in the air and followed the signal from the TIE fighter that had appeared on my sensor a few seconds ago. For a moment, I glanced at Kix. Poe had taken off his helmet. I had been right earlier, he had lost consciousness during the escape.

I turned my concentration back to finding Jason. Next to me, Poe was gripping the controls in front of him so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.
I stepped on the gas again when we were almost at the signal. I couldn't suppress a grin when I spotted Jason. He had somehow managed to attach himself to the TIE fighter with a rope and was letting fire from the weapon on his wrist rain down on the windshield.

I glanced over at Poe, "See, I said he could take care of himself," I smirked. Poe looked like the weight of a mountain had been lifted off his shoulders and activated his radio, "Jace we're on approach." He jumped up from his seat and ran to the loading ramp to catch Jason as soon as he came shooting into the ship. Because as fast as we were flying, Jason's landing wasn't going to be a soft one. I wanted to avoid him sliding all the way to the back cannon like last time and taking everything with him on his way there. It took me two hours to get everything back in its rightful place.

Jason must have seen us, because he disconnected from the fighter and flew towards us. I narrowed my eyes in concentration and opened the loading ramp. Not caring that I was on collision course with the TIE fighter, I waited until Jason was in range.
A rumble, Poe's cry of pain and a lot of cursing at Mando'a told me that Jason landed safely in the ship. Without hesitation, I cut the thrust and jerked the wheel around. The engines howled indignantly. But I achieved what I wanted. The ship performed a 180C° turn. Just in time. Just a second longer and we would have collided with the TIE fighter.

I fired up the thrust again and made the most of the Marauder. "Jason to the gun!" I yelled to the back. The TIE fighter was catching up and opened fire. I routinely dodged the fire. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Jason had followed my order and opened fire in return.
With a groan, Poe dropped down next to me "Couldn't you have flown a little slower?" he complained as he gripped the controls and steered the ship steeply upwards with me towards space.

I just rolled my eyes, if I had done that I would have been too slow for the Tech turn and our remains could now be scraped from the desert ground.
Without responding to his complaint, I started working on the navicomputer and selected the resistance headquarters as my destination. Behind us, the TIE fighter's engines shrieked. The fighter had almost caught up with us.

I couldn't help but grin. The pilot was too slow. Because as soon as we had left the atmosphere of Ponemah, I pulled the lever for the hyperspace drive backwards and we were pulled into the depths of space.