"Shuttle-bay? Do you copy?"
I gently nudge Cara with my elbow, letting her know that she could take this guy out on her own. She nods her head in response and begins to slowly creep further into the central command center, the soles of her boots silently moving across the polished metal floor. The Imperial officer continues to mess around with a few of the cameras set in front of him, oblivious to the ex-shock-trooper that was creeping up right behind him.
Once she sets herself up right behind him, she shoots her arms forward and wraps him up in a tight chokehold, lifting him up and out of his comfy-looking seat. He struggles against her tight grip until his limbs fall completely limp. She lowers his body to the ground before switching off all the security systems and cameras that ran throughout the entirety of the base.
"Make sure to grab his code cylinder. It'll probably help us out later on," I say, nudging Greef's side with my leg. He nods his head and riffles around the Imperial officer's clothes, soon finding the silver code cylinder I had been talking about.
"Alright, I found the heat shaft," Din says, nodding his head towards the main entrance of the room while drawing his blaster again. "Let's go."
"I'm sorry, what did you say you found? The heat-what-now?" I tease, a mischievous smirk tugging at my lips. Din groans and shakes his helmeted head at me, his free hand clamping down on my shoulder as he turned me around and gently shoved me towards the door.
"We don't have time for that right now," he mutters, continuing to guide me towards the door.
"Well, I'd beg to differ-"
"Mae," he scolds, squeezing my shoulder once before easily slipping past me to lead the rest of the group to the so-called 'heat shaft'. I let out a quiet laugh at his word choice before following him and the others out of the central command center.
We race through the halls of the base, trying to move as fast as we could while staying near-silent and unheard of from the others that were still mindlessly moving about the Imperial base. As we sped through the clean-cut corridors, I couldn't help but think back to all the times I had snuck through corridors all too similar to these ones.
The memories of sneaking around, practically playing a much scarier version of hide-and-seek with Gideon (which usually involved a grand punishment if I were actually found), and running into a select few stormtroopers that were actually kind enough to hide me away when Gideon got a little too close to finding me (I still applaud their bravery) started to flood into my mind, making me smile softly.
I had rarely ever gotten caught when sneaking around to get into the data libraries and to avoid Gideon, but there were always those few moments where I had slipped up and hadn't hidden well enough. And those memories of getting caught were enough to make my soft smile falter and disappear.
"The access corridor should be right past this junction," Din says in a hushed tone through his slightly staticky modulator, continuing to lead us through the hall and around a sharp corner. As we started to run past another large opening in the wide hall, Din shoots his arm out to the side and forces everyone to come to a sliding stop.
Everyone but me.
Of course, with my terrific ass luck, Din's outstretched arm completely misses my sprinting figure and his gloved hand loosely snagged on the sleeve of my leather jacket, doing the exact opposite of what he was actually trying to do.
And regardless of me trying to slide to a halting stop, the speed I was running at combined with Din's grip on my sleeve ended up whipping me around and right into the fucking opening of the hallway. The abrupt break of motion makes me stumble over my feet and further into the opening, leaving me no time to try and hideaway. I snap my gaze up to see two tall stormtroopers already staring at me with their blasters settled nicely in their hands.
I freeze in my tracks as their helmeted heads lock right onto me. My eyes widen and I immediately swipe my hand to the side, making them both slam against the nearest wall as if they were a pair of simple ragdolls dressed up in white armor. They both fall limp before hitting the polished floor. I grimace and slowly roll my tense shoulders back in an attempt to calm myself down.
"Shit," I mutter, tiredly rubbing my hands over my face for a few seconds. I drop my hands back down to my sides as my eyes lock back onto the two unconscious stormtroopers that were sprawled out on the ground in front of me. I sigh and look back towards the rest of the group. "Anyone wanna look like a Buckethead for the day? I mean, I would put the armor on, but I think I'm a little too short to pass off as a decent trooper," I joke, hoping to make light of the situation.
"Let's just keep moving," Din says, nodding his head before starting to walk on again. I nod my head and continue to follow him and the others, praying to the Maker that those two troopers wouldn't turn out to be a problem later on in the mission. We soon round another corner before running into a large bay door. "There. Mythrol, slice that door."
"Use the code cylinder," Greef says, sliding it out of his pocket before handing it over to Mythrol.
The blue man slides the silver cylinder into the door panel and the door quickly slides open. We continue on, walking down a short hallway that seemed to get narrower and narrower the further we went down it. We quickly came to the end of the hall and an immense amount of heat started to flood around our figures. I squint my brown eyes while looking away for a few seconds, the hot air burning them as we came to a shortstop.
I walk over to the edge of the grated platform, glancing down to see a large lava pit resting right beneath our feet. The fall looked a little too far for my liking, and it's not like the endpoint of the fall was the greatest thing either. I grimace and take a few steps back, not liking the idea of falling into a deep pit of molten lava.
I don't think I liked the idea of lava in general.
"There it is," Greef says, pointing towards one of the control systems that was set on the side of the reactor. The metal path that looped around it looked narrow and thin, looking as if the lava was starting to melt off the welded edges. It definitely wasn't a platform that I wanted to spend any time on, but I had a feeling that I was going to be the one person spending the most time on it. Greef snaps his attention over to Mythrol and nods his head towards the reactor. "Get on the reactor controls and drain the coolant lines. We'll watch the doors while you do that."
"Me?" Mythrol questions, pointing one of his fingers at his own chest as he sent Greef a careful look.
"Yes, you!" the older man insists, nodding his head towards the reactor again.
"But I'm afraid of heights... and heat... and lava-"
"How about I put you back in carbonite instead? Get over there and turn the reactor off!"
"For Maker's sake!" I snap, shutting both of them up as I shoved past them. I grab onto Mythrol's sleeve and pull him away from the edge of the thin platform. "I'll do it myself since you two can't seem to get a grip on your ever-lasting quarrel."
I step up to the narrower platform, taking a deep breath of hot air before stepping onto it. It wobbles a bit, making me stop and freeze. After waiting for a few steady moments, I bring my other foot up and carefully balance on the platform, silently wishing that the Empire had thought to build a fucking railing to go with it as I slowly started to shuffle over to the control board.
My eyes glance down for a split second, but that was an obvious mistake from the fucking get-go. I clench my jaw and lean my head back, keeping my eyes off of the lava beneath me as I let out a shaky breath.
"Why the fuck did I do that?" I whisper to myself, shaking my head as I slowly turned around to face the control board.
"Careful," Din warns in a low tone, his gaze fixated on me as he took a subtly step towards the platform I was balancing on.
"Thanks for the reminder," I mutter, my eyes flicking over to him for a few seconds before they focus back on the control board set in front of me. I start pressing a few of the buttons, but I get nothing but aggravating buzzing noises thrown back at me. I furrow my brows, my eyes scanning the control board. I quickly spot the security port at the bottom of the panel, the small junction supplying me with the answer I needed.
"Come on, hurry up," Greef whispers, his words urging me to move faster.
"First of all, don't rush me when I'm standing on a rickety ass platform above a gigantic pit of lava. Second of all, hand me the code cylinder," I say, looking over to him while holding my hand out to Mythrol. Mythrol stretches his arm out to me in an attempt to pass me the code cylinder, but I use the force to take it from him so he didn't have to get too close to the edge of the platform.
I insert the end of the silver cylinder into the panel before pressing a few of the buttons again. Everything starts to work and the coolant levels immediately start dropping as the panel started to beep loudly in my face.
"Okay, I think I did it," I say, nodding my head as my brown eyes flicked over the screen once more. The lava pit starts to burst and bubble beneath us and an alarm starts blaring over the main intercom. "Yup. I definitely did it."
"She's gonna blow! Let's get out of here!" Mythrol shouts, immediately whipping around and zipping out of the room to escape the suffocating heat. I shake my head and start to walk back towards the main platform, but the lava beneath us bursts into an aggressive fit of rage again and it rumbles the rock walls that surrounded us. I gasp as my feet stumble about and slip away from the thin grated platform I had been standing on.
I immediately shoot my hand out in an attempt to grab onto the edge of the platform to save myself, but the side of my leg slammed into the jagged edge of it, the impact flipping me over so I was diving headfirst into the pit of bubbling lava. And just as I thought I was going to fall to my heated demise, a pair of large hands grasp onto one of my ankles, keeping me from falling any closer to the lava pit.
I suck in a harsh breath of the suffocating air and whip my head up to see DIn standing right over me, both of his hands wrapped around my ankle in a tight grip as Cara held onto his shoulders to keep him steady and grounded. I let out a heavy sigh of release as my body limply swayed for a few moments.
"Not cool. Really not fucking cool," I breathe out, shaking my head a few times as I tried to catch my breath and slow my pounding heart. Greef grabs onto my other ankle and they all work on pulling me back up onto the platform, letting me rest against the burning grated metal as I continued to catch my breath.
"Are you okay?" Din rushes out, dropping down onto one of his knees next to my side as I continued to layout on the platform. I take a deep breath and hold it in my chest for a few long seconds, nodding my head a few times to answer him silently. I let my breath out in a sharp huff before sitting up.
"I'm okay," I answer, looking over the edge of the platform for a moment to see the slowly rising lava getting closer and closer to us. I look back towards the group and nod my head again. "Thanks for saving me," I say, still feeling a little shaken by what had just happened. The three of them nod back at me and Din grabs onto one of my hands, pulling me back up to my feet and away from the burning edge.
We race out of the reactor room, our paths weaving through the corridors we had initially taken to get there. I could still feel the high levels of adrenaline rushing through my system as we ran, making my senses feel like they were going haywire. My heart continued to pound heavily in my chest, the sound almost echoing deep in my ears. The uneasy feeling I had experienced earlier suddenly returns and I shake my head, knowing that this was a horrible time for that feeling to be coming back.
"How long do we have until this place blows?" Cara asks, her head constantly swiveling side to side as we ran. Her eyes flicked around the hall, searching for any threats that might be daring enough to pop up in our path.
"Ten minutes at the most," Greef answers, doing the same thing that Cara had been doing.
We keep running until Din holds his hand up in a tight fist, telling us all to stop. I stop short this time around, making sure not to slide out into the hallway opening like I had done last time he had tried to stop us.
"Send in reinforcements!" a trooper commands, sounding as if he were just a few mere steps away from us down the adjacent corridor. Din twirls his finger around and points it to the other opening that was closest to us. We all follow him through, making sure to keep our steps quiet.
We cut through a few halls before dipping into what looked to be another hangar opening that might be our way out of this powder keg. As we step in, we quickly realize that it was anything but a hangar opening. Two men were standing behind a control board, their eyes widening as they caught sight of us.
"Hurry, destroy it!" the taller one of the pair shouts as they both snatch their blasters up from their waistbands. One of them starts to shoot at the control board in front of them, while the other starts shooting at us. I snatch my saber off of my waist and deflect a few of the blaster bolts, making sure my companions were left untouched. Greef and Din managed to shoot both of the men down, letting the room slip back into its previous controlled state.
As everything started to settle back down, I walk further into the room and look around. I quickly noticed the many bacta tanks set in the metal walls; each one lined up next to the other in perfect uniform. Inside each looming tank seemed to be malnourished figures, their bodies unmoving and stuck in the thick bacta liquid. I furrow my brows and step a little closer to the glass, resting my free hand on the cold surface.
"What the..." Greef mutters, his words trailing off as everyone else started to look at the unmoving figures I had already been staring at.
"I thought you said this was a forward operating base," Cara says, looking over to the older man who still seemed slightly disturbed and confused with the sight set in front of him.
"I thought it was," he replies, still sounding completely stunned by what he was looking at.
"This isn't a military operation center," Cara states, shaking her head.
"It's a fucking lab," I finish for her, my brown eyes stuck on whatever was growing inside the tank. What the hell was the Empire trying to do here? This isn't like anything I've ever seen them try before. "We need to get into the main system and figure out what's going on."
"What about the reactor?" Mythrol stammers out, his head snapping around to look at the rest of us.
"Just do it," Cara snaps, looking over at him while glaring slightly.
"I don't like this," Din says, keeping his gaze trained on the bacta tank.
"Neither do I," I mutter, letting my hand slip away from the glass.
"Pardon me," Mythrol says politely as he shoved one of the dead Imperial workers off of the command board. I would've laughed if we weren't in such a dire situation. I turn around to face him as a holographic message popped up on one of the transceivers.
"Replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure," a familiar face says, his posture timid yet straight.
"That's Dr. Pershing. That's the doctor that Mando and I had met when we took the bounty on the kid," I say, looking over to Din for a flash of a second. He nods his head to confirm my statement, keeping his gaze on the holographic transmission.
"There were promising effects for an entire fortnight, but unfortunately, the body rejected the sample of the blood. I highly doubt we'll be able to find another donor with a higher M-count to keep our project alive. Miss Dameron and the child were the only donors with an acceptable count of midichlorians and we haven't had any luck with finding either of the subjects, nor have we had any luck with finding new donors so..." he continues, clasping his hands behind his back as a disappointed grimace overtook his face.
I tense up at the mention of my name as well as the mention of the kid. I furrow my brows and narrow my eyes at the transmission, my mind starting to piece everything together. They were trying to fucking transfer midichlorians into non-force-users. And by the sound of it, they weren't doing too well.
"I fear the next volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the next transfusion. Unfortunately, we've also exhausted our initial supply of blood. The child was small and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing it," he explains, nodding his head along as he spoke.
My eyes widen and my mind flashes back to the day we had rescued the kid. Din had told me late on that they had the kid hooked up to some machine when he had walked into the room. Apparently, Pershing had told Din that the child would have already been dead if it weren't for him.
And for some reason, I actually think that his intentions were sincere.
"If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to another donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon," he finishes. My heart stops as the holo transmission slowly flickers and fades away. I slowly look up at Mythrol, meeting his gaze.
"When was that transmission sent and received?" I ask, nodding towards the control board in front of him. He taps on a few things before nodding his head.
"This recording's three days old," he answers. I clench my jaw and slowly look over at Din.
"Looks like I wasn't dreaming after all," I mutter as my eyes met the sight of his blank visor. I quickly look away from him and towards the perfectly polished ground, not knowing how to react.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to figure that out, thanks to the stormtroopers that were rounding the corner and running into the room. I ignite my saber as they start shooting, my mind already knowing that I was going to have to think about all of this later on in my own time. My four companions race to take cover while I stood in the middle of the room.
"We have them!" the trooper in front shouts while raising his blaster like the others.
"Trust me, you don't have shit," I sigh out as I shook my head. I start to advance towards them, spinning my saber once before taking action. I take out a few of them while the others cover me from behind, making sure to shoot anyone that had managed to slip into my blindspot.
"We need to get the kid," Din says, popping up next to me.
"Go. You'll be able to get back to town with your pack a lot faster if you don't have to carry me around with you. I'll stay with them for now and meet you there," I say, nodding my head as I let my lightsaber comfortably rest near my side.
"We'll head to the speeder and meet you back there in no time," Cara says, reassuring him of our plan. He nods his head and whips around, running back the way we had come. I follow the other three out of the room, our frantic steps echoing around the walls.
"When did you say this place is gonna blow again?" Mythrol asks, glancing back at us as he led the way.
"That doesn't matter anymore. We gotta go and we gotta go now."
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Word count: 3642
Note: Hey guys! How're y'all doing today? I hope all is well and I hope you guys are having an amazing day! I'll see you guys next chapter ;)