"Move yourselves! Move yourselves! Helmets, jackets, guns! Grab 'em and move!" Kit's voice thunders through the small dormitory. I swing my legs out of the bunk, narrowly avoid Darren's tumbling body as he falls out of the overhead bunk. Throwing on my standard-issue jacket (little more than black waistcoat with ammo pockets), slipping my sliced-bowl hat (or helmet) on, grabbing my gun and holster. Around me, troopers throw their kit together, going from near-catatonic lumps to (sort of) battle-readiness. Darren taps me on the shoulder, telling me he's ready. It's almost a relief, this order to action stations, a relief of the pressure that's been building since we were intercepted on approach to Tatooine. Why we were going to Tatooine of all places, no one had thought to tell us. It wasn't like we would want to know what we were dying for, if things went wrong. The corridors of the Tantive IV were empty, hospital-white walls and black metal deck shining and shaking with impacts on the hull, as they had for most of the pursuit - near an hour. The less experienced lads (of which there were too many) had been scared by it, each impact and near-miss eating into their nerves with grim hunger.

Rushing down the corridor, we pass a gold etiquette droid, and a blue astromech droid. Kit is ahead of me, Darren to my right. The etiquette droid is prattling on about there being no escape for the princess, forcing me to fight the temptation to blast him where he stands. There's no escape for her if you keep on like that in front of the lads, we're going to get boarded by an Imperial Star Destroyer. We're going to need all the nerve we can get to hold them off in time for us to detach ourselves.

"Set for static defence, keep it tight!" Kit's voice reminds me that we're at the airlock.


Raymus Antilles is sweating. For the best part of an hour he had fought to keep the Tantive IV ahead of the ISD, diverting auxiliary power to engines and deflector shields when each demanded more. But it was over now. The shields had finally failed after their valiant struggle against the turbo lasers of the ISD, and they'd just lost the dorsal turret. At the moment, the co-pilot is attempting to stop the Imps' slicers from simply shutting down the Tantive, and thereby boarding her. It's a futile effort, a stream of invective pouring from the man's mouth as the read outs show system shut-down across the dashboard.

"Main reactor shut-down" the flight engineer reads.

Raymus cursed.

"Subsystems overridden; doors locked open, helm locked out and controls disengaged, signals shut down. "

He pauses for a moment.

"We are tractored"

Raymus' head drops into his hands. So close to the objective, yet they'd been snatched out of space like green rookies. It shouldn't have been that easy, normally it wouldn't have been that easy, but the pursuit had come from nowhere. Two hours after the data had been confirmed in storage onboard, the ISD had come barreling out of hyperspace guns blazing, demanding they shut down, and prepare to be boarded. Now they were caught, and with no hope of escape. Forgive me he begs those soldiers that were about to die uselessly I failed you.


We've been waiting for a minute, tops, when we hear the cruiser locking against the hull. My eyes are drawn up to the ceiling, along with everyone else's. I tighten my grip on the gun, shift my arms on Darren's shoulder. This is it. Me and Darren should be ok in this position, him on one knee and me crouching behind him. Should mean we're a smaller target and still have two guns pointing in the right direction. "Steady, boys, steady" calls Kit.

The airlock door goes up in a shower of blinding sparks, forcing me to turn my head away. Goddess protect me, this it. With a final crack and flash, the metal disintegrates, leaving a cloud of smoke.

Now!

I fire, so does Darren. Both our shots hit the doorframe. The impression on my eyes left by the flash is spoiling my aim. Then the Stormtroopers are in the corridor, and everyone is shooting. Two of the first four go down, riddled with blaster bolts. But the other two are still alive, and at this range, unobstructed by temporary blindness, they can hardly miss. Men scream. Men die. The blaster bolts fly, hitting walls, the floor, the ceiling. Every place that feels their impact spits sparks and brief flames, leaving the wall blackened and scarred. The sheer noise of battle in the enclosed space is deafening, an assault wave that hurls itself at the redoubt that is your eardrums.

More Stormtroopers step through the ruined airlock, guns up and working. They work well. Within seconds, we're losing. All those closest to the airlock are dead. I see Kit writhing on the deck, blaster wound through his shoulder. Still more men in white armor stride through the door, so that for every one I drop, another appears instantly. Those new lads are losing it. Glancing round at the corridor behind them, they start edging backwards, a movement that I just know is going to become a run. The panic spreads like wildfire, and suddenly everyone's getting out of here. Some shuffle back down the corridor, others slip into side doors. The fight's over now, and we can only hope it doesn't become a massacre. I could curse the ones that moved first, if I blamed them. Which I don't. But if me and Darren stay here, we're going to die. 'He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day' and all that. He's reached the same conclusion. Getting up, we turn and hurl ourselves 'round a corner, falling in with the others fighting a shuffling rearguard. The Stormtroopers follow us. I drop one, Darren another. But of the six that retreated round the corner, there's just me, Darren, plus someone who I've never talked to before, left. What a way to be introduced. Darren grabs a charge off a dead Stormtrooper, before hurling it round the corner. There's an explosion, some screaming.

"That should hold 'em a few seconds"

"Yeah" I turn to the stranger "What's your name?"

"Dav"

"Nice, let's go"

At the next corner, Dav stops. "Plan?"

"Make ourselves a nuisance?" suggests Darren

I shake my head "We hold here long enough to stop them, then fall back and try to find and evac the Princess"

They nod.

We wait. It's not long. They come jogging up the corridor, weapons at the ready. In three smooth steps, we set up on the corner, Darren kneeling, me standing, and Dav next to me.

It goes wrong. Badly wrong. They shoot first, cutting down Dav (heart-shot - he's dead), and sending sparks cascading around Me and Darren

"Dammit!" I yell "Run!"


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