ii. unlikely cover

"Don't move."

The girl froze, hands hovering over the controls. She could see her head twitching minutely, wanting to look at the blade being held past her head, but not wanting to move any closer to it. The girl didn't say a word, just sat there completely frozen. Breha could sense that she was conflicted. On one hand, she wanted to see who was threatening her with a lightsaber, but on the other hand, she really didn't want to get attacked with said lightsaber. Having it near her head was bad enough.

"What are you doing on this ship?" Breha demanded.

"Trying to get away from the First Order," the girl said in a rush.

"The First Order? Why would they be after you?"

"They saw me with a member of the Resistance and the droid they're after."

Confusion swept over Breha. A member of the Resistance? Who else was on Jakku? Why didn't anyone tell her that someone else was here? It wasn't like no one knew that she was here, her best friend had flown her to the planet. She'd told her mother she'd tracked the ship to Jakku. If someone else was here, if someone was undercover or working on something... Breha could have blown their cover by accident. Why wouldn't they have told her?

And what droid?

Before Breha could question the girl further, a voice echoed out through the cockpit from a headset that rested on a hook against the wall. Breha knew it connected to the gunner position. That had to be the member of the Resistance they hadn't told her about.

"You ever fly this thing?"

Male. Not surprising to Breha. His tone was rushed, indicating a need to go as fast as possible. While Breha was confident enough in her skills that she believed she could take on two people, especially with the lightsaber, she couldn't risk anyone coming to investigate the ship or damaging it too much.

"Answer him," Breha instructed the girl. She didn't want him to come up to see what was going on.

"No, this ship hasn't flown in years!" the girl called back, then lowered her voice to address Breha once again. "I really need to get this ship in the air before we get hit by TIE Fighters."

"What TIE Fighters?"

The signature sound of the engine of a TIE Fighter sounded overhead as she saw the smaller ship zoom by through the cockpit windows. They fired a blast at them that narrowly missed, the sand just in front of the ship exploding with the force of the blast. Breha's eyes widened.

"Those TIE Fighters."

"Well then what are you waiting for?" Breha asked her, immediately powering off the lightsaber and hanging it from her belt once again, taking her place in the co-pilot's seat. "Start the ship!"

"What are you doing?" the girl asked her.

"Waiting for you to get us out of here before we get blasted out of here!" she exclaimed, reaching for the switch that closed the loading ramp.

The girl nodded and started working on flipping all of the correct switches so that they were ready for takeoff. She muttered to herself the entire time, but Breha paid it no mind. The TIE Fighters made another loop past them and she heard them fire another shot — that thankfully also missed — at them as their own engines finally roared to life.

After one final hiccup where they bounced after attempting to take off, they were finally in the air. Though it showed just how long it had been since the ship had been in the air as they tilted dangerously to the one side, causing both Breha and the other girl to yelp as one side of the ship hit the ground again, scraping through the sand before crashing into the Niima Outpost gate. As soon as they righted themselves, the girl grabbed the controls and pulled up, sending them higher into the air.

"Wait, stay low! Hey, stay low!" came the male voice again.

"What?" the girl called back

"Stay low," he instructed, his voice clearer all of a sudden and Breha realized he must have actually put on the headset. "It confuses their tracking."

"It does what?" Breha questioned.

"BB-8, hold on!" the girl called behind her before looking ahead again. "I'm going low!"

Wait, BB-8? Breha looked over her shoulder to see the exact droid she'd been expecting to see, an orange and white astromech, peeking out from around another corner. The blonde only felt more confusion at seeing the familiar droid here of all places. The last time she'd seen BB-8, it was back at the base on D'Qar following around Commander Dameron like a puppy.

Did that mean that BB-8 was the droid that the First Order was after? But that didn't make any sense, why would the First Order be after Poe Dameron's droid?

"BB-8, why are you on Jakku?" she questioned him. The droid gave several beeps and chirps to explain what had happened. "Long story? You better explain this long story to me once we get rid of these TIE Fighters."

The girl guided the ship in a loop and just as they levelled out, she turned them quickly to the side to avoid the TIE Fighters that were suddenly coming directly at them. Breha had to quickly grab the arms of the chair to keep herself from sliding suddenly out of it and she heard BB-8 bouncing around in the hallway behind them.

" How do you know BB-8?" the girl asked her once they were level again.

"He's a Resistance droid," Breha said.

"I know that," the girl said.

"I'm with the Resistance," Breha explained.

The whole ship suddenly jolted, halting their conversation in its tracks, as one of the TIE Fighter pilots finally landed a shot on the bottom of the ship. Breha swore as she looked out the viewport of the ship to see if she could still spot the TIE Fighters.

"What are you doing back there?" the girl called to whoever was in the gunner's position. "Are you ever gonna fire back?"

"I'm working on it!" his voice filtered back to them. "Are the shields up?"

Knowing which switch it was by heart, Breha reached for where it was next to her and quickly flipped it on. "They are now!"

Finally, the sounds of the ship's guns firing back at the TIE Fighters appeared as the distant sounds of the enemy ships following and firing at them continued.

"We need cover, quick!"

"We're about to get some!" the girl called back before lowering her voice. "I hope..."

"You hope?" Breha questioned.

Ahead, as they skirted around a large sand dune, one side of the ship once more scraping through the sand, Breha finally saw the cover they were supposedly going to be getting. The bleak sand dunes turned suddenly to hills dotted with the scattered wrecks of Imperial-class Star Destroyers and her eyes widened.

"Oh, no," Breha muttered.

They skirted expertly around the wrecks of the ships, dodging most of the blasts the TIE Fighters fired at them. Breha couldn't help but be impressed by this girl's flying as it was some of the best she'd ever seen, and she had met a lot of pilots. Whenever the opportunity became available, she heard the distinctive sounds of whoever was in the gunner's seat finally firing back at their pursuers.

Her heart was hammering away in her chest, pumping the adrenaline through her body that was keeping her alert and able to react quickly as she monitored the controls and kept an eye on what was happening around her. How had she gotten into this position? She was supposed to just be retrieving the ship, not getting into a fight.

Enzo was going to kill her.

She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts when she saw a smoking TIE Fighter fall past her view out of the window, spiralling out of control until it crashed into the sand with a small explosion. A smile spread across her face.

"Nice shot!" the girl complimented.

It only took another moment for a shot to hit the ship, causing the two girls in the cockpit to jolt. She could hear the sounds of the TIE Fighter following them continuing to shoot rapidly and if that wasn't enough, the voice that filtered up from the gunner's position only made things worse.

"Uh, the cannon's stuck in forward position, I can't move it. You gotta lose him!"

Breha cursed and moved the shields to a better position before turning her attention to the girl next to her and saw her eyeing one of the wrecks ahead of them, larger than the rest, with an unsure but determined look.

"Get ready!" she said.

"Okay. For what?"

"You're not planning on taking us in there, are you?" Breha asked.

Instead of answering, the girl gave Breha another unsure look before turning her attention forward once again. She let out a heavy breath and prayed that the Force would guide them out of there in one piece.

The ship shot up over a large piece of engine wreckage which was sticking out of the sand, the remaining TIE Fighter hot on their tail. Just as they seemed to be going past the large wreck, the girl shifted the throttle and the ship did a loop, sending them flying right into the wreckage of a Star Destroyer.

"Are we really doing this?" came the voice from below.

Breha couldn't have put it better herself.

The spaces between engine parts was small, large enough that they fit but still small enough that looking at the path ahead of them made Breha anxious they'd continue to fit. It was likely that the TIE Fighter was having even less trouble than they were which made Breha wonder just what the girl sat next to her thought was going to happen by taking them in there.

All of a sudden, she pushed the throttle as far forward as it would go and they turned out a hole in the side of the larger ship, taking them into open air once again. When they were high enough in the air, she did something that Breha not only would never have thought of doing herself, but couldn't believe anyone would actually consider doing.

She turned off the engines.

"What are you doing?" she asked, horrified, as the ship went into a freefall.

"Trust me!"

Breha took a deep breath, gripping the arms of the co-pilot's seat tightly. "If we crash, I'm going to regret trusting you!"

When the ship had fallen enough that it was parallel to the ground, Breha finally understood the plan. The sounds of their cannon firing back at the TIE Fighter in pursuit of them reached their ears. The cannon was stuck in forward position, Breha realized, the only way to fire back is to move the ship, not the cannon.

Breha held her breath as she heard the sounds of them exchanging fire and didn't release it until she saw the remains of the TIE Fighter fall and the girl reached forward, turning the engines back on and righting it before they hit the sand. They shot forward, slowly gaining altitude on the desert planet below them, no longer being pursued.

"You did it!" Breha exclaimed.

"Whoa!" the man below yelled.

─────────

an. next chapter is finally here! definitely didn't mean for it to take this long but hey, sometimes life hits you with a crazy string of months. I'm so glad to be getting somewhere with this story and I can't wait to get more to you!

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top