Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

22

"If landings and takeoffs are the hardest, isn't that more reason to teach me?" Hera's tone had begun to border on wheedling. She already knew they were close to the landing strip, and she was desperate to learn how to land the ship. Gobi only shook his head at her with a sigh.

"You are persistent."

"We've got an Imperial ship approaching," Serin warned, seeing the dot appear on the beeping console. While both adults kept their outward composure, Hera was not so calm, her insides twisting in fear. She had seen those who spoke out against the Empire taken away and imprisoned, but she was never allowed to find out what happened to them. What they had done was much worse. Who knew what the Empire would do to them if they found out they had brought weapons back to their planet?

"Go low," Gobi instructed the woman, attempting to keep his tone even for the child's sake. It would not do for any of them to panic now. For now they just had to shake them, find someplace safe to land and act like they had never left Ryloth. "Try to lose them."

A lone sniper lay concealed within the canyon, tracking their ship with his scope raised to his eye. The lens zoomed in, until he could clearly see their engines, exposed at the bottom of the ship. An easy target.

The sniper's finger tightened on the trigger, the bolt firing from the end of the barrel. It soared, scarlet laser arcing through the air, and slammed heavily into the left engine, exploding on contact.

The ship shook violently, warning alarms going off in the cockpit and the ship's trajectory nosediving downwards, despite Serin's best attempts to pull up and keep the ship in control. There was nothing she could do. They were going down.

They were jerked roughly to the side as the freighter crashed into the bottom of the canyon. The ship's momentum carried it forward, scraping deep grooves into the dirt before it connected with the wall of the canyon, smoke, fire and destruction left in its wake. Hera was thrown to the back of the cockpit, head cracking hard against the wall. She slumped to the ground, all three Twi'leks knocked out cold.

Crosshair lowered the rifle, darkly pleased with his perfect shot, and pressed his fingers against the side of his helmet, activating the comm system.

"Move in." He was already off, making his way down the rocks, towards the criminals he had tracked to Ryloth's moon and back. The transport waiting on the other side of the canyon took off, the troopers inside gripping their blasters, waiting for the ramp to land so they could apprehend the criminals.

Gobi stirred at the sound of the Imperial gunship, peering out of the cockpit at the landing transport. Hera's own head lifted, throbbing painfully from the knock it had taken. But the pain was nothing compared to the fear. The Empire was right there. They had caught them. And she had no idea what they were going to do to them.

The troopers were off as soon as the landing ramp had fully descended, four armoured in white, three in black. Hera scrambled to her feet and was at the seats again with a fully alert Gobi and Serin.

"What do we do?" Her voice shook, betraying her panic. Gobi couldn't respond. There was nothing they could do. He shouldn't have brought her on this mission. Now Cham and Eleni would lose their daughter.

"Just say nothing," he said eventually, hearing the troopers break into the ship. "Let me handle this."

Four troopers dressed in black armour were the ones who pulled them out of the freighter, lining them up in front of the crashed ship with weapons levelled at them. Crosshair had already sent word back to Senator Taa and Vice Admiral Rampart, now they were only waiting for the large tank to roll in with the two politicians.