Rose Tico used to daydream about all the heroic deeds she would accomplish when she first joined the Resistance. But it took her only a couple of days to realise that the rebels were already full on skilled pilots like her sister, hot-blooded daredevils and heroic leaders like Poe Dameron. They were in desperate need of grease monkeys though, people who could fix blasters, fighters and jammed doors to command centres.
She knew of course that she was as important as the next resistance fighter. And truth to be told she wasn't the best shot anyway, but with a hydro spanner she was a poet. Every TIE fighter shot down by the cannons she had carefully adjusted felt like a personal victory.
And perhaps not everybody was cut out to be a hero. A hero like Paige who had given her life for the cause she believed in; a hero like General Organa who fought the good fight decades after decades, without losing hope or her warmth; a hero like Finn who turned against the system who had brought him up.
Finn. When she met Finn she was overwhelmed, even awed by him. And she had seen the way Finn had looked at Rey when she had saved them – and Rose had understood. It was only proper for a hero to fall for a heroine. The woman who had slain Supreme Leader Snoke and had defeated his guards, there was no way she could compete against that. At first she had felt a sting of jealousy every time she had seen Finn smile at Rey, but when General Organa set up a new base in the Outer Rim she got to know her; she had instantly liked her. Rey was good-hearted, brave and a true friend. She had also grown from a spunky scavenger into a cool-headed leader. General Organa and she were often seen discussing strategies late at night.
And Rose … Rose was where she had started. She still enjoyed her work, but sometimes she caught herself daydreaming again, remembering the time she had the audacity to sneak on board of a First Order cruiser. Finn still visited her, they had become friends, but she felt that her moment of glory was gone.
When Poe asked her to help him with a mission, she didn't even need to think. Didn't even ask if there was someone else who could do the job.
"Don't you want to hear first what the mission entails?" asked Poe with a smile.
Rose eagerly rubbed her hands together. "I'm up for anything."
"Good to hear. So, have you ever heard of Ghrma 4?"
She shook her head.
"Neither had I until we received intel that the First Order was trying to land on this moon."
Rose frowned. "Trying?"
"There are a lot of ion particles in the atmosphere. It plays havoc with most systems. As far as we can tell they haven't succeeded, but we have to assume that there is something important on this rock. Long story short – we want you to isolate a shuttle as good as possible so that we can have a look at whatever the First Order is doing down there."
"That's it?" asked Rose, unable to hide her disappointment. "I'm not even going on the mission?"
Poe patted her back. "There is no need to risk a pilot and our best mechanic in a simple recon mission."
Rose suspected that Poe wasn't entirety truthful when he called her the 'best mechanic', but she decided to take the compliment anyway.
"Okay."
ooOOoo
It took her about two days until she had a shuttle ready. There was no real protection against ion particles, but she had done what was humanly possible. When she put the finishing touches on the engines she realised that she had to do more than just prep the ship. There was no other way, she told herself.
"I need go too," said Rose to Poe when she reported to him.
He put down his data pad and stared at her disbelievingly.
"If the system fails the pilot needs to reboot the whole shielding manually. A droid could do that, but it couldn't handle the ion particles any more than the ship itself." She crossed her arms. „I know the system."
Poe sighted and leaned back in his chair. "You're the expert. If you think that's the best course of action, then we'll do as you say."
Rose blinked in surprise. That had been easier than she had expected.
"The take-off is tomorrow at 05:00," said Poe. "Wex will be piloting."
ooOOoo
Rose was in the hangar half an hour before take-off and checked the modifications. Everything was in order; she allowed herself another cup of caf and a ration bar and waited for Wex.
He was a young pilot, but very conscientious. They left the hangar on time and Rose sat in the co-pilot seat as he plotted the course.
A couple of hours later they entered the Ghrma system. Rose felt slightly nervous as they approached the planet. She checked the ion particle density of the planet on her console when Wex suddenly changed course.
She jerked her head up and expected to see an armada of TIE fighters – but instead she saw nothing but a single ship rather far away.
"Did they detect us?"
"Nope, we're out of range."
"Then why did you change course?" asked Rose.
"It's a First Order command shuttle. Only the upper brass uses them. Usually they're accompanied by TIE fighters … but this one is alone."
Rose narrowed her eyes. "Are you certain?"
"This is an incredible opportunity – if we can damage their long range comms before they can call for help …" He sounded excited. "Think about the intel we could gather."
Rose licked her lips and smiled. "That would be something. What are their defensive capabilities?"
"A twin cannon as far as I know."
"As far as you know? You're not certain?"
He gave her a lop-sided grin. "Let's have a look."
Rose shifted in her seat. "That's not our mission."
"It is now!" He accelerated the ship. "Man our cannon. They won't even know what hit them."
Rose cursed under her breath and rushed to towards the cannon in the back of the shuttle. She had a bad feeling about this.
As soon as she had activated the cannon and her headset, they had already entered shooting range. The First Order shuttle accelerated, attempting to reach comm range.
"Oh no, you don't", muttered Rose and took aim at the comm transceiver. A few shots later it was out of commission.
The enemy shuttle flew a loop and started to shoot at them with its twin cannon. Wex managed to dodge with a manoeuvre and managed to get behind the shuttle. Rose aimed for the weapon, but when she shot her aim was thrown off by an explosion.
Smoke started to fill the ship and Rose pulled an old rag out of her overalls and covered her nose and her mouth. She coughed and scanned for the enemy.
She saw the shuttle hurling towards the small moon, it seemed that she had hit them pretty good. She activated her headset.
"Wex! What happened?"
He coughed and croaked: "They had some sort of ventral cannon. Bastards!"
"Can we make it back to base?"
He didn't answer. Rose checked again the position of the enemy shuttle; it was about to enter the atmosphere of the moon, judging from the trail of debris they were about to crash.
She jumped up and ran back into the cockpit. Wex was coughing, thick smoke made it difficult for him to see the blinking displays.
Rose sat down on the co-pilot seat and fastened her seatbelt. She checked the fuel and the controls and felt how all colour drained from her face as she saw the extent of the damage.
The elevon was lagging. It had been hit. The manoeuvrability was close to zero; it would take her at least half an hour to fix this – if she were in a safe hangar with all the necessary tools.
There was no chance that they would make it back. But if they could land she could fix it! She started to reroute the controls though sub-systems.
"What are you doing?" yelled Wex.
"Giving you minimal controls!"
Rose focussed on the task at hand, sweat was running down her face as she worked quickly to give Wex as much manoeuvrability as possible. She had her eyes firmly fixed on the servo sub processors and bypassed the unnecessary system was fast as possible. She didn't look up when the shuttle started to shake and rumble as it entered the moon's atmosphere. Just a little more she thought, her eyes peeled on the circuits, even as the heat became unbearable. Just a little mor-
