Buckets: A Star Wars Story

12. Trooper - Pt. III

The Summa was a quiet ship. It was what I always loved about her. Regardless of her size and armaments, and even the little crew we had buzzing busily about, she always felt so still. She was always my place of comfort, even long after we left these missions behind us. When we pulled out from Christophsis, I couldn't help but admire the view out of the cockpit.

Being up there among the stars...

It wasn't hard to see why pilots who went up never liked to come back down.

We followed Siqsa's ship through the blackness, always just a few beats behind them. There's was one of the newer Raider-class corvettes, the Raider II, to be exact. It was slightly larger, its armaments more advanced, systems sharper and more streamlined, but we could keep up. That seemed to be all that mattered to Siqsa.

No accounting for taste with that one.

Inraas had been shuttled in to join them, and that was when we all collectively seemed to acknowledge that this was the finale. Thesh was standing up beside us on the bridge, hands clasped behind his back and looking the picture of an Imperial officer - eyes straight ahead at the holomap, face stern, brow furrowed resolutely over his dark eyes. We all stood beside him, judging the map, plotting attack points and coordinating with Siqsa's own navigator. We were taking Venn down or going to die trying. I preferred the alternative of not dying.

"We only get one shot at this before we're pulled off the mission," Siqsa's voice had come over the holocomm as Inraas finished his brief, and before long his image had stepped into view beside him. "The Grand Moff has apparently deigned to assign all Death Troopers to a special project. Involving Krennic, of all bloody people," the irritation in his voice was almost palpable. "We need to get him this time. Maelstrom Squad, your assistance has been most appreciated, but now we need you at your best. We either catch them here, or a great threat to Imperial Security remains on the loose."

Peek gonked beside me, bumping against my leg, as Aurek folded his arms and watched the map, "Do we have a full deck here?"

"Pure sabacc," Inraas replied, "and I assure you that they will attempt to stack that deck any way that they can. Mind you, the locals are not... fond of Imperial intervention."

"Shoot any tail-head that gets in your way," Siqsa growled from beside him. "They mean nothing, and they are less than nothing. We're on the approach now. We rendezvous, then we move on them. We cannot afford delays."

Shooting twi'leks wasn't my idea of a good time, mind you.

We closed down all of the electronics and found ourselves all staring at one another.

"Who's ready to get shot for messing up a mission?" Aurek asked as he raised his hand all while sounding far too chipper for the rather dark remark.

Thesh cocked an eyebrow at him while Besh and Osk found other things to do. I raised my hand out of a sense of obligation to not let him be stupid by himself.

"Dorn gets me."

"If you die, I'll likely be next, so..."

Thesh groaned and rolled his eyes, "For... will you two stop being so damned overdramatic?"

"To be fair," Osk had replied, looking up from his boots, "that is a likely possibility."

Thesh looked, as usual, beyond annoyed. He stalked off to his own quarters, leaving the rest of us standing there and staring at an empty projection board. Aurek reached up and pulled his bucket off, giving his hair a quick pass through with his fingers. "Well, he's more intense than usual." he finished with an overdramatic roll of his eyes, and sensing a sassing session, we all pulled our buckets off and huddled closer in together.