"Shereshoy vencuyanir de oya'karir."

"Joy lives in the hunt."

- Djuris Vasuur, Mandalorian Gladiator


Unregistered smuggler's base, designation Alpha Base, Rhen Var

Snow drifted lazily from the sky in big, puffy flakes. The storm had finally calmed after hours of raging winds strong enough to blast a ronto off its feet. Framed by a golden, halo-like glow, the sun peeked out from behind dull gray clouds and sent brilliant shafts of light onto the snowfields below in shimmering, scintillating shafts of illumination.

With a fresh, unmarred coat of snow covering the land for as far as the eye could see, everything looked bright and new and clean. The world had been reborn, and nothing of the battle-scarred Imperial base was recognizable any longer. It almost looked like a perfect winter snowfall, save for one thing: it was so cold outside that the majority of beings would freeze in under five minutes. And this was Rhen Var during the summertime.

Not exactly the snowy wonderland it appeared to be.

Jay shuddered and rubbed her gloved hands together, trying to calm her near-uncontrollable shivering. Heating systems in a mostly mechanized storage facility were, unsurprisingly, a low priority. It seemed like no matter how many of Vhetin's heat sticks she managed to tuck into the lining of her jacket, she just got colder and colder as the hours ticked away.

Desperate for some kind of warmth, she'd searched the warehouse for close to two hours and found nothing but a small portable heater in the back. She was now huddled as close as safely possible to the heater, bundled up in her many layers and her heavy winter jacket and still freezing.

As soon as we're through with this contract, she thought, her breath coming out as visible puffs of vapor in the air, I'm going to take a nice long vacation to Mon Calamari. White sand beaches, warm weather, deep blue water, warm weather...

A sluggish draft of icy air wound its way past her. She let out a quiet gasp and pulled her heavy overcoat more securely around herself. She let out another low breath and watched the flickering orange light of the heater dance across the floor.

The insurgency operation on the smuggler's outpost had gone off with barely a hitch. Save for a few minor snags – like Vhetin almost dying from cold exposure – the attack had been fast, brutal, and effective. Now, Pollamo and Kokr were safely in custody, Vhetin was finally starting to thaw out, and they were almost ready to get off this frozen hellhole of a planet.

Vhetin was still recovering from a mild case of hypothermia and frostbite, courtesy of fighting without heating systems in his suit for almost five minutes longer than he should have. But he'd insisted several times that despite the damage he'd be fine. He'd disappeared into the shadowy back rooms of the facility about an hour ago and hadn't reappeared since.

Jay wasn't fooled by his bravado. In fact, she was still a little worried that her partner was more seriously injured than he let on. But she forced herself to remember that he could take care of himself; he'd already proved that time and again. He wasn't one to accept help happily, and he was as stubborn as a an old Trandoshan when it came to not showing weakness. She'd long since learned that it was futile to worry too much about him.

Besides, he was a Mandalorian. They were the toughest of the tough, an entire civilization that lived for danger, adventure, and rough times. For toy soldiers — as they were sometimes called — they didn't break easily. And after surviving the hectic battle that had taken place only hours ago, Jay felt that they were both ready for anything.

She was finally settling into the mindset of a bounty hunter, remaining cool and calm even when a normal being would break down and panic. Vhetin's training had honed her senses, setting her on the path to becoming a strong, deadly warrior just like him.

Hell, she thought as she inched ever closer to the heater, I'm even close to learning that pistol-spinning trick. I'll be a full-fledged merc sooner than I thought.

She'd long ago realized the irony of her situation. Growing up, she hadn't really given any thought to bounty hunters or their trade. She knew they were out there of course, but she'd never met any, never heard of any besides the infamous Boba Fett, and had certainly never expressed any desire to become one. They were part of a different world, a world she had no intention of joining.

And then she'd met Vhetin. In a single day, her limited knowledge of bounty hunters – as well as her entire life – had been turned on its head. Vhetin had opened her eyes to a whole new galaxy hidden just beneath the one she'd known. And though it was technically called the criminal underworld, she failed to see anything criminal in Vhetin's actions.

Sure, he made a living bringing other people to their doom and profiting from their pain. He had no problem killing when necessary and he broke Imperial law with seemingly reckless abandon. But could she honestly say the targets he went after were entirely innocent?

And she wasn't exactly an innocent civilian herself. She'd made a career in the Imperial military, earning respect and advancement by tallying up hundreds of confirmed kills from the cockpit of her starfighter. She had probably killed more people than Vhetin ever had, now that she really thought about it.

Sekha's words suddenly came back to her, as if echoing from the shadows around her.

"Have you ever stared into the eyes of the being you were about to kill?" Sekha had asked. "Seen the terror, heard the sobbing and the pleading, and pulled the trigger anyway? Have you ever killed in cold blood?"

"N-no," Jay had stammered back.

As disturbing as the question was, Sekha had had a point. Jay had thought she was tough enough to be a bounty hunter simply because she'd killed before. It had never occurred to her that killing a being in her starfighter, far removed from the actual brutality of death and destruction, was a very different kind of experience.

She remembered the sudden wave of nausea that had washed over her as she'd surveyed the aftermath of Vhetin's fight on Coruscant with the thugs sent to kill them. She remembered the way her stomach had churned at the sight of the carnage, of bodies scorched by the humming blade of his lightsaber pike. She remembered her unease as she watched her partner calmly dispatching his opponents, then just as calmly walking away.

She knew she wasn't as cold as her partner. She hadn't even actually killed anyone in that fight. The worst she'd done was knock a few of them unconscious or give them easily treatable blaster wounds.

It all seemed so long ago; Tarron's message of the bounty on Kassh's head, their fight on Coruscant, even the conversation with Sekha only a few days previous. The galaxy had once again changed forever, growing suddenly darker and even more dangerous. Her usual dichotomy of right and wrong had once more been called into question, and –

No, she suddenly thought. The galaxy was still the same. She was the one who had changed. She was no longer the naive, impressionable young fighter pilot who had worked her way through the Imperial ranks, nor was she the enthusiastic mercenary student eager to learn the tricks of bounty hunting.

She felt as if she'd aged several hundred years in only days. Her wildest imagination couldn't have conjured up the frantic battle to capture their bounty here on Rhen Var. She couldn't have possibly imagined the icy feeling of adrenaline as stormtroopers shouted, screamed, and fought all around her. The chaos of battle was an image that would not soon leave her. And that wasn't even mentioning the deadly snowstorm she had successfully managed to outrun.

She shivered yet again at the mere thought.

In space, sounds were muffled and distant. In the cockpit of her fighter she could hear the screeching pop of her TIE Interceptor's quad-cannons firing. She could hear excited, sometimes frantic radio chatter. But the din of battle, the explosions and the screams of terror, victory, and pain, were always separated from her by a thick panel of transparisteel and the endless void of space.

On the ground things were different. Battling on the ground she heard every cry of pain, felt the concussive blast of every explosion. She could see every drop of blood that stained the snow and could smell the scent of charred plastoid armor and smoke. She was in the flow of it all, not watching it from behind a bank of technical readouts and heads-up displays.

On the ground, fighting was a different game entirely.

She looked up from the warm light of the heater as Vhetin appeared from one of the back rooms. He melted away from the shadows in his black-gray armor, like a silent hawkbat against the night sky.

"I finally got that comms array in the back working," he declared, "and I've sent out a beacon to Void. The self-pilot program kicked in remotely and she should be here for pickup within a few minutes."

"Good good," Tal Wam muttered, sounding like he was talking mostly to himself. The spindly-looking Duros was huddled in his own corner, sniffing at a stale ration bar he'd found in the back room. He wrinkled his nose and tossed it aside. "Good good."

"For once I agree with him," Jay said, clambering to her feet and tugging her coat more securely around herself. "I can't wait to get off this ice ball. How cold do you think it is outside?"

"My HUD says the ambient temperature is hovering at around eighty degrees below zero. But this is summer, after all, and the temperature can get pretty wild this far north. In here, it's a balmy two degrees above."

"What about these two?" Jay asked, nudging the tightly bound forms of Pollamo and Kokr with the tip of her boot. Kokr spat at her feet while his brother just whimpered and tried unsuccessfully to scurry away. Jay had bound their wrists together while they'd still been unconscious, and all the Rodian accomplished was a pathetic, frenzied wriggling against his tightened restraints.

"They don't have proper gear for the weather," she said, looking up at her partner. "They'll freeze before we get them to the pickup location."

"That's not a problem," Vhetin said. He surveyed their captives, his helmeted gaze slowly resting on one, then the other. Both cringed under the imposing T-visored stare. "I've sent a command to Void to set down right in the middle of Alpha Base's courtyard. We'll only have about thirty meters to cross, then we're back onboard. We'll have plenty of time."

"Are you sure?" Jay asked. "I'm not too excited about risking hypothermia a second time. You aren't completely healed from the last time we went outside."

"I'll be fine," Vhetin murmured, flexing a gloved hand.

Jay knew he was lying, but still found herself admiring his dedication. He'd fought in the sub-zero temperatures of Rhen Var for almost fifteen minutes with minimal heating systems. He'd succumbed to mild hypothermia and frostbite in the end and she was sure his skin was still raw from the biting cold. But he didn't look injured in the slightest. He moved with the same grace and poise as always and – after finally warming up after the battle – had gotten right back to business. He looked as fit and deadly now as he ever did, though the full-body Mandalorian armor probably helped.

"What we really need to worry about," the hunter continued, "is the bounties trying to run while we move them."

He squatted in front of Kokr and shook his head in mock-disappointment. "I still can't believe that after all our courtesy you've tried to escape twice already. And handcuffed to your brother, you still thought you could run for it? It's a good thing Jay had her stun prod ready to prove you wrong."

"Screw you, bucket-head," Kokr spat. "I'm not goin' anywhere. I'd rather freeze out here than be turned over to Sekha. Death would be better than havin' to look that psycho in the eye."

Jay raised an eyebrow, seeing an opportunity to force a little cooperation out of the two. "Really? And does your brother agree with you?"

Kokr's craggy face darkened and he opened his mouth to say more. Jay beat him to it, though, and turned to Pollamo. "Well?" she asked the one-eyed Rodian. "Do you want to die a slow, painful death, freezing out in the snow? Or would you rather be taken to Sekha to face imprisonment?"

Vhetin's helmeted gaze turned towards her and he cocked his head slightly to one side. In the months they'd trained together Jay had learned to read the subtle cues of his body language; in many ways even the slightest movement from him was just as expressive than any scowl or grin from a normal being's face. And his body language clearly stated his mind: That isn't true.

Jay was well aware of the fact that Sekha would likely make Pollamo and Kokr face the slowest and most painful death her devious mind could think up. But if she was going to get any cooperation out of either of them, Pollamo at least had to be fooled. The Rodian was a coward but clearly the brains of the pair. Kokr would follow his brother like the obedient Eiopie he was, regardless of his personal fate.

"Sekha isn't the kindest being in the galaxy," Jay continued, "but she won't waste valuable time and money to kill you. Trust me."

The lies were becoming bigger and bigger. If she continued like this she risked losing the bait and revealing her deception. Vhetin was staring at her, showing the slightest sign of approval. Jay paid it no notice; if she was going to sell this her attention had to be solely on Pollamo.

"Now, I know you'd rather stay alive than freeze to death out here. And a life of imprisonment is better than no life at all. Am I right?"

"Don't listen to her!" Kokr snarled. "She's lying! Sekha will rip out our-"

"Listen to the voice of reason," Jay said quietly, looking the Rodian directly in his single remaining compound eye and trying to appear as honest as possible. "You don't want to die out here, do you?"

"-and stuff them up our-"

"Sekha's a busy woman. She's got much more important things to do than watch a simple thief fry over a single day's income. A fraction of a single day's income."

"I..." Pollamo hesitated, his proboscis shriveling up in the Rodian equivalent of a human biting her lip. "I'd prefer to live."

"Good." Jay nodded, smiling sweetly. "I knew you'd see it my way."

"Don't listen to her! She's a lying bitch who's trying to-"

Jay glanced at her partner and gestured to the bearded man. "May I?"

"Go ahead." Vhetin waved a hand. "Do us all a favor."

She pulled out her stun prod and pressed it against Kokr's neck. A loud snap echoed through the storage facility and a shower of white-hot sparks flew from the tip of the prod. Kokr immediately slumped over unconscious, cut off mid-sentence.

Jay stood, deactivated the stun prod, and clipped it back onto her belt. "Good," she said. "I'm glad that's settled. Are you going to cooperate now that your brother's not breathing down your neck?"

Pollamo squeaked and fell silent. She decided to take that as a yes. She headed back towards the northwestern corner of the facility, to their meager pile of supplies. She didn't get far before Vhetin fell into step next to her.

"Can I have a word with you? Away from the prisoners."

"If this is about what I just said to Pollamo-"

"It isn't. More important."

"Then lead the way, I guess." She stooped, grabbed a water thermos from the pile, and followed him into the back. There was a tiny room there, sealed off from the rest of the facility. Her partner closed the door behind her as she entered the room, which seemed to be a workshop of some kind. There was a large durasteel bench along one wall littered with tools: welders, hydrospanners, dampers, and fusion cutters mostly. It looked like Vhetin had been using the tools to repair his suit's environmental protection systems, which had shorted out during the battle.

"So what's so important?" she asked, taking a swig from the water thermos. For some reason the cold had made her throat parched and dry.

Vhetin's voice was still hoarse. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"Oh good. We haven't had any bad news in hours. I was getting worried."

He ignored her sarcasm. "When I got the comm relay working I picked up an emergency transmission from another outpost a few hundred kilometers from our location."

"What did it say?"

"Apparently this outpost's employees made it to another nearby base. They sent out an emergency reinforcement request to the Imperial forces in orbit."

"Uh-oh."

She and Vhetin had stormed this base and taken the leaders of the operation hostage. If they were captured now by the defeated Imperials, there would be severe repercussions; arrest, imprisonment, and immediate execution by firing squad was the most likely outcome. But then again, considering she was a wanted fugitive and her partner had a standing bounty on his own head, the Empire might not even bother taking them prisoner.

"We need to bug out fast," he continued. "But Void won't be here for a few minutes. And a Star Destroyer is already in orbit."

"Oh kark it all. How much time do we have?"

He opened the door and headed out of the room, moving at a brisk pace. He looked as calm and collected as usual, but she couldn't miss the way one of his hands clenched into a fist. He was worried, despite his usual calm and collected demeanor. "Not long. The sooner we can get out of here, the better our chances."

He hit the opening stud of the heavy durasteel door and the barrier rumbled open with a metallic shriek. "But there's one more issue."

She was about to ask what he was talking about when the door pulled back completely and she saw that the entrance had been entirely buried by the storm. Where once had stood a vehicle entryway leading to the snowy courtyard outside there was now a solid wall of packed white snow, no doubt packed down as hard as duracrete.

Vhetin stepped away from the button and gestured wordlessly to the snowy barricade.

"Okay..." Jay said slowly. It looked as if the snow had completely buried the front entrance, at least ten feet deep. There would be no digging out of that mess. "That complicates things."

"Yeah. It isn't much of a problem, but it will slow us down."

"Wait, what? It isn't much of a problem?" Jay said incredulously. She walked up to the wall of snow and pounded on it with her fist. A tiny dent appeared in the rock-hard face of the barrier, but nothing more than that. "This thing might as well be made of durasteel. We aren't going to get through it."

Vhetin looked from her to the snow wall, scrutinizing it carefully. Then he leveled his left arm towards the barrier of snow and ice and hit a small trigger on the top of his armored gauntlet.

There was a short sputter of flame and a whooshing noise. Then a white-hot inferno erupted from his arm and blasted hard against the barrier. Jay gasped and jumped back from the sudden torrent of fire, covering her ears as a deafening roar filled the storage facility. Vhetin didn't seem bothered by his close proximity to the flood of flame. In fact, he leaned closer to the snow wall, making sure the fire was directed in a focused column against the snow. After only moments, a human-sized depression had melted away.

"Oh," she said, slowly lowering her hands. "You have a flamethrower."

"I have a flamethrower," he echoed, sounding amused. He turned his attention back to the snow and stepped even closer, concentrating the flow of heat tighter against the wall. She had to step back a bit to avoid a tendril of flame that snaked across the face of the barrier like a living creature.

In retrospect, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Vhetin's armor was full of various gadgets and equipment. His gear sported everything from missiles to projectile dart guns to – evidently – flamethrowers. He seemed to pride himself on being prepared for any situation. Including this one, apparently.

He turned a small dial on the side of his gauntlet and the wash of fire narrowed into a small pillar of red-orange light that tunneled into the snow and sent heated water splashing back into the room. Even after putting distance between herself and the pyrotechnics, Jay could still feel the heat of the flames against her arms and chest. It was a welcome change from the frigid atmosphere of the warehouse.

"Where was this when we were freezing to death a few hours ago?" she inquired, shouting over the roar of the flamethrower.

"I had to conserve the fuel," her partner replied. "I suspected the storm might have penned us in here. Emergencies only, you know?"

Water sloshed down around her boots and ran across the floor, slowly spreading back into the storage facility. When the miniature flood reached Kokr's limp form, the man sputtered and growled, "What the kark?"

Tal Wam scurried forward, stun prod raised excitedly. But Jay held out a hand to stop him. "No. We're going to need him conscious of we're going to get them out of here."

The Duros looked crestfallen and settled for kicking his former employer in the side before retreating back to his corner. Jay, meanwhile, began gathering up their supplies. This wouldn't take long, and as soon as they had an opening to escape they needed to take it. The Empire would be here soon and she wanted to be long gone by the time they finally showed up.


Vhetin grunted as water splashed back against his helmet. His HUD software sent a minuscule electrical charge along the surface of his visor that made the condensation sputter and evaporate, clearing his view.

"Okay," he called over his shoulder. "I'm almost through the first couple feet. Jay, go ahead and gather up our stuff. We're going to need to get out of here quick."

"Already done," her partner reported. She zipped up her bulky overcoat once more while Tal Wam gathered the prisoners and prepared them for travel back out into the frigid wasteland of Rhen Var. "Where's Void? Close, I hope?"

"She's here and holding position above the outpost," Vhetin grunted, increasing the fuel flow to his flamethrower and causing the flames the fan out in an even greater arc. His arm was sunk into the snow up to his shoulder, and water was now pouring down out of the makeshift tunnel in a miniature waterfall.

Jay slung her pack over her shoulder and motioned for Tal Wam to haul the bounties to their feet. "Okay. We're ready when you are, Stripes."

Vhetin nodded and leaned even further into the hole. Soon his entire upper body was inside the tunnel he'd made. Jay slung her supply pack over her shoulders and made sure her gloves were safely pulled down past her wrists. She hadn't come this far to get frostbitten now.

"Okay," Vhetin called from inside the tunnel. He motioned for them to follow him into the melted passageway. "Come on. I've got our exit."

Jay activated her stun prod and waved it at their prisoners. "You heard the Mando," she said. "On your feet."

Pollamo whimpered and obediently struggled to a standing position. Kokr looked as if he was going to try and stay right where he was, glaring at Jay without moving. She poked him in the ribs with the stun prod and he grew dramatically more obedient.

Vhetin rose onto his hands and knees into the tunnel and began punching a bigger hole to the outside. His fist broke through the brittle crust of ice that covered the surface of the snow, creating a small hole through which a bright beam of sunlight came streaming.

A quick blast of flame widened the hole enough to serve as a viable escape route. He could hear Void's engines rumbling nearby and could even see clouds of snow kicked up from the downdraft of her engines. He sent a remote activation signal to the ship's navicomputer and transmitted coordinates for a quick touchdown. A shadow passed momentarily overhead as the spearhead-shaped freighter moved to obey his commands.

He heard a scraping sound and a cry of surprise from the tunnel behind him and called down, "Careful. The melted snow and ice made the floor a little slippery."

"Slip slip," Tal Wam agreed from somewhere behind him. "Slip slip!"

Vhetin braced his arms against the huge snowdrift that had covered the storage facility and hauled himself out of the tunnel. The air was frigid and the wind bit right through his suit, even with the environmental systems repaired. They would need to make this fast or risk someone getting hurt from the cold.

Pollamo and Kokr came first. Since their hands were tied and Vhetin was in no mood to release them, he had to pull them up by hooking his arms under the Rodian's shoulders and hauling both their weight through the tunnel. Jay and Tal Wam helped by pushing on Kokr from below.

"No!" Kokr suddenly yelled. He grabbed hold of either side of the tunnel exit, digging his gloved fingers into the crust of ice. "No, I 'aint goin' back to Sekha! I'm dyin' right here, on my terms!"

"No... you're... not," Jay growled from below, and shoved harder on the man's barrel-like chest.

Kokr's icy handholds didn't last. After a few tense moments Vhetin, Pollamo, and his brother suddenly broke free of the tunnel's exit and landed in a heap next to the large melted hole. Vhetin quickly disentangled himself from the bounties before they could grab at any of his gear, then activated his own stun prod and jabbed Kokr right under the chin. The man twitched and shouted in pain.

"Try something like that again," Vhetin panted, "and I'll kill you myself and collect the reward for just your head."

As he clambered to his feet again he saw Tal Wam scramble into the open air, his long arms and legs allowing him to pull himself up with little problem. Jay was right behind him, clambering through the hole with a little more difficulty.

"Thanks," Jay said as Vhetin offered her a hand. She planted her feet along the snow wall and scrambled up into the open air. She staggered, off balance, and cursed as the cold air hit her full in the face. Her hands were quickly shoved into her jacket pockets and she hopped up and down in protest.

"Kriff," she muttered. Her voice was muffled behind her protective face mask. "Even with the sun shining, this place is colder than a mynock cave."

The snow had covered more than they'd thought; Vhetin could now see only the tops of the buildings scattered around the Imperial listening post. The rest had been completely buried under meters of snow. But despite the freezing cold, the sky was now clear and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

A small flock of furry tundra birds - an example of Rhen Var's small amount of native wildlife – flew over their heads, squawking and swooping low over the snowy ground as Void settled down on its landing struts not far away. With a mechanized rumble the entry ramp slid down and the doors opened, beckoning them inside with promise of warmth and shelter from the tundra.

"Okay," Vhetin said, patting Jay's heavily-padded shoulder. "Our ride is here. Let's get moving."

He grabbed Pollamo and Kokr both by the back of the neck and half-dragged the two helpless bounties toward the ship. Tal Wam sprinted past them, up the entry ramp, and disappeared inside without another word.

"Kriff yourself, bucket-head," Kokr spat as they marched toward the ship. "I swear, as soon as I get out of these restraints, I'm gonna—"

"Your days of making threats are over," Vhetin growled. "We caught you fair and square. The only thing you're going to be doing now is waiting for permanent housing in Sekha's torture chambers."

Pollamo squeaked fearfully, but Kokr spat again and continued his rant. "You've made yourself a dangerous enemy, bucket-head. Taking this contract is gonna be your last mistake. I got friends, you hear me? Powerful friends who—"

Vhetin turned to ask Jay to jab the man with her stun prod again, but she wasn't behind him. She was still standing next to the melted hole that had led them out. Her hands were cupped around her eyes and she was scanning the horizon, head cocked slightly to one side.

"Come on, Jay. We're on a tight schedule here, remember?"

She held up a gloved hand and hissed, "Shh! Do you hear that?"

Vhetin froze in his steps and listened intently, cocking his head like his partner. He heard the breeze blowing past his helmet, heard the distant calls of the tundra birds. He could even hear Tal Wam banging around inside the ship, no doubt searching for a safe corner to curl up. But there was nothing that would cause Jay such concern.

He eventually shrugged, but tightened his grip on the bounties just in case. "I don't hear anything."

Jay was silent for a few moments more. Then she visibly stiffened. He was about to ask what was wrong when she turned and sprinted toward the ship. "Probably because I'm more used it than you. Move. Now!"

He followed, still confused, and tuned the sensitivity in his helmet's audio receivers to maximum sensitivity.

It didn't take long to hear what had caused Jay such alarm: from far away came a distant screech over the air, like some kind of animal caught up in its final death throes. It warbled and echoed across the tundra toward them, thrumming with a distinct mechanical pulse. Everyone in the galaxy knew that particular sound.

TIE fighters.

"Shab," Vhetin muttered and broke into a run for the ship, dragging the bounties with him.

Jay was right beside him. "Damn imperials must have found us faster than you thought."

They entered the ship and Vhetin punched the door controls on his way past. The landing ramp retracted and the doors slid shut with a resounding boom, sealing them off from the winter-bound world outside. The endless, bitter cold of Rhen Var was effectively sealed off once and for all.

"Jay!" he shouted as he sprinted towards the cockpit. He tore his cold-weather gear off as he ran. If this came to a fight, he'd need all the mobility he could get. "Get the bounties secured!"

"Already on it," she called back. She was also shedding her jacket and gloves as she shoved the prisoners into the holding cells. "Just get us out of here!"

He barely waited for the cockpit door to open completely. He slipped in as soon as he was able and threw himself at the console. An enemy contact alarm blared through the small room, whining insistently and flashing red lights overhead. He didn't even bother with the pre-flight system check and instead just warmed the sublight engines and grasped the control yoke, sliding into the pilot's seat with a breathless huff.

The door hissed open again and Jay appeared, panting and pale. She was hopping up and down on one foot, trying to toss her winter boots aside as she approached. "Why haven't we left yet? Those TIEs will be all over us!"

"I'm going as fast as I can," Vhetin growled, tightening his grip on the controls. "In the meantime, get on the guns and watch our six."

"Already on it," Jay said and fell into the gunner's seat.

The ship trembled as it lifted off and both Vhetin and Jay fastened their safety restraints; those TIES were heading for the base with purpose, and Void was definitely showing up on their scanners by now. The slate-gray ships screamed over a distant snow dune, close enough that Vhetin could see the spray of snow kicked up by their engines as they passed. There were eight of them, swooping low over the terrain and headed straight for them.

"Contacts," Jay reported. "They're entering firing range now."

But she didn't open fire. She just watched her readouts, eyes narrowed and fingers hovering over the controls as the TIEs drew closer and closer. Void rotated in the air and blasted off into the sky, shaking the deck beneath their feet, but they weren't traveling nearly fast enough to lose their pursuers. The Imperial ships drew closer and closer, gaining on them with every passing second.

"Jay," he said slowly. "Any time now..."

Jay didn't answer. Her attention was completely focused on the display in front of her. He was about to object again when she suddenly mashed the firing studs of the control stick. The deck kicked under his feet and a muffled boom reverberated through the ship as Void's ventral cannons fired. Vhetin threw a glance at the ship's motion tracker and saw one enemy contact disappear.

An explosion rocked through the ship as the fighters passed over them and opened up with their cannons, almost ripping the two out of their seats. An alarm blared through the cockpit and the lights dimmed to an emergency red glow.

"Turbolaser hits!" Vhetin called, typing commands into the ship's control panel. "They strafed us! Starboard shields are at sixty-five percent!"

Jay scowled and leaned forward in her seat. Her right hand danced over the controls while her left manned the joystick. She pulled the joystick's trigger and the cannons fired four times. She cursed and shot again, three more times. No contacts disappeared from the scanners now.

"Damn it!" She slammed her hand against the display. "They're too fast!"

"Do your best," Vhetin said as he pulled back on the control yoke and sent the ship into a sharp ascent from the planet surface. The TIEs came screaming back into view, breaking across the bow of the ship and opening fire on the port and starboard sides. He pulled the ship into a tight spiral, roaring off in the opposite direction and avoiding most of the blows. The shields dipped to dangerously low levels as they absorbed some of the luckier shots, then slowly began to charge once more.

Jay muttered something and tensed as the TIEs swooped around in hot pursuit. She pulled the trigger twice and the motion tracker showed two enemy contacts disappear from the screen. She did not acknowledge the small victory. She hunched lower in her seat, eyes raking over the display in front of her.

He pushed the engines until they were running at 120 percent capacity, but it was still too slow to outrun the smaller, more agile fighters. The Imperial ships passed twice more, draining shipwide shields to almost 20 percent. Jay managed to pick off two more but it wasn't enough. There were three still attacking and Void's motion tracker showed eight more on the way.

"Screw this," Vhetin muttered, and pushed the engines to 250 percent. The ship rocked violently but held course for the lower atmosphere. If they could break into orbit, the TIEs would be forced to fall back. Without deflector shields, they wouldn't be able to survive the exit burn at such a steep trajectory.

"Hey!" Jay was almost thrown out of her seat again. "Do you know how hard it is to shoot like this?"

"Just keep them off my back," Vhetin snapped, booting up the navicomputer and typing in coordinates for the nearest star system. They needed to be able to jump to lightspeed as soon as they hit open space. "TIEs are fragile ships. We should lose them once we hit the mesosphere."

No sooner had the words left his helmet's vocoder than the sky outside the ship became tinged with red. The TIEs were forced to slow and pull back, but four of them attempted to follow. Vhetin stubbornly held course and the shields flared as they entered mid-atmosphere. Flames crawled around the cockpit's transparisteel viewport forcing Vhetin to hand control over to the self-pilot system. He could no longer pilot the ship at these velocities, especially with turbolaser bolts detonating all around them. A deep rumble began to drown out sound in the cockpit, and Vhetin set his audio receivers to filter out the sound.

The sound of screeching, rending metal echoed from further back in the ship, and Vhetin looked over at the ship status display.

"We've lost a half-meter of armor plating from the port stabilizers!" he called over the roar of the ship's exit burn. "We can't keep this up much longer."

Jay pushed away from the gunnery console. This deep in the atmosphere, the guns were useless anyway. She swiveled to face the front viewport and murmured, "Keep your fingers crossed that we-"

The ship bucked as one of the nearest TIE fighters exploded, torn apart by the strain of following Void's exit burn. Its octagonal wings spiraled away from the pod-like cockpit and slammed into Void's side. The deck lurched, sending them hurtling forward against their crash webbing.

"Hull breach!" Jay shouted over the rumbling that filled the ship and the newest blaring sirens. "A TIE wing tore through the hull. There's a half-meter tear along the port side of the ship, and we're venting atmosphere fast!"

"Seal off that room!" Vhetin barked as two more of the TIEs exploded in bright bursts of flame and ion discharge. Now, only one remained.

Even as he watched, the final TIE spiraled out of control and lost power, dipping back into the stratosphere and plummeting back to the ground far, far below. As soon as the fighter's stalling engines sputtered back to life, it roared away with the rest of its patrol. The TIEs circled below like angry fish swarming around a freshly-rescued swimmer, then screeched off and headed toward the south.

Jay sat back in her seat and wiped sweat from her forehead. She covered her face with both hands for a moment, then let out a shaky, relieved laugh. Her voice was muffled as she said, "That was too close."

Moments later they broke through the upper atmosphere and rocketed into open space. The flames outside the cockpit dimmed until only the endless black void was visible. Vhetin breathed a sigh of relief and eased back on the engines, which had been redlining for over two minutes now.

"It's a rare day that someone outruns a squad of TIEs," he breathed. "I almost didn't think Void was up to the—"

The cockpit was suddenly thrown into shadow as the triangular mass of a Star Destroyer passed above them. Void shook violently as the city-sized ship soared over them, the Destroyer's massive engines letting out a deafening, thunderous rumble that consumed the world as it went. It seemed to go on forever, stretching out ahead of them for almost a mile before its giant, blinding blue-white engines finally came into view.

"Oh shit," Vhetin said, hunching over the controls. Within the blink of an eye, the engines were pushed into the red again and Void shot forward with unnatural speed and a scream of tortured engines. The comm crackled to life.

"This is Imperial Star Destroyer Lazarus," a cultured, Imperial voice said, "hailing unidentified criminal vessel. Break off your course immediately and proceed to the designated coordinates for search and seizure. Fail to comply, and we will open fire."

"Oh no," Jay murmured, eyes wide.

As they watched, the steel-gray ship began to turn in front of them. The city-sized dreadnought rotated, coming about so its main compliment of port-side weapons were aiming straight for them. Hundreds of turbolaser batteries – each one with more than enough power to blast Void into oblivion – began to train on them. The entire front viewport was filled with the contoured surface of the Destroyer's hull.

"Unidentified vessel," the Imperial said again. "This is your final warning. Break off your course immediately."

Vhetin cursed and yanked the controls back. Void tilted violently, rocketing toward the slate-gray surface of the capital ship in a desperate climb for open space. There was still a slim avenue of escape if they continued up, but the Destroyer's bulk would impede them very soon.

"They're trying to cut us off from our hyperspace exit!" Jay cried in disbelief. Seconds later she shouted and covered her head as sickly green turbolaser fire began to explode all around them. The onboard computers began blaring alarms again, and a single nearby detonation drained the shields all the way to fifteen percent.

Vhetin struck his flat palm against the navicomputer box. It buzzed and informed him they were still a few seconds away from locked-in coordinates. Ahead of them, the Star Destroyer finished rotating into place and brought its building-sized turbolasers to bear on the ship. A swarm of TIE fighters were pouring from its ventral docking bay, spilling out into space like a cloud of gunmetal gray and shimmering transparisteel. Within moments they'd be cut off by a veritable army of Imperial forces.

"Get. This. Thing. Moving!" Jay shouted, still covering her head. A bank of holomonitors next to her cracked and exploded, showering her with sparks.

Over the din, the navicomputer finally chimed a completion tone. With a frantic shout, Vhetin leaned forward against his crash webbing, ignoring the detonations of turbolaser bolts all around him, and shoved the hyperspace lever forward.

A strange feeling of weightlessness settled into the pit of his stomach as the engines charged with a building whine. The stars stretched into streaks ahead of them, spinning in dizzying arcs of light. Still too slow; the Destroyer was inching into their way and would soon cut off their exit. Vhetin shoved the lever forward again, then again and again with a shout of, "Come on!"

Then, with a warped detonation of light and sound, Void blasted forward into the multi-dimensional world of hyperspace and their view morphed into a spinning tunnel of blue white streaks. Rhen Var and the Star Destroyer Lazarus were left far, far behind.

An all-encompassing silence suddenly filled the ship. Jay stared straight ahead, her eyes wide. Vhetin was doing the same; barely moving, barely breathing, just thinking, Am I dead? Are we all dead?

He looked down at the motion tracker and saw it clear of hostile contacts. The rest of the ship was functioning normally, save for a slight coolant leak off of the damaged stabilizers and the overheating sublight engines. One of the storage areas was still sealed off from the hull breach, but it didn't look like any of the cargo within had been lost. Armor plating along Void's hull was shaved paper-thin in some places, but it was still holding together. They were still holding together.

They sat in disbelieving silence. Then Jay let out a short huff and fell forward against her crash webbing. When she looked up, her face was pale and sweaty, but smiling.

"We made it," she said, her voice little more than a whisper. "I don't believe it, but we actually made it!"

Vhetin let out an explosive breath and slumped forward against the control console, covering his helmeted head with both hands. Jay laughed and punched the air in celebration, letting out a joyous whoop of a victory cry. She collapsed back in her seat and ran her hands through her messy and disheveled hair.

"Are all your getaways this close?"

"Not always." He shook his head and listened to his heart still pounding in his ears. After taking a few deep and calming breaths, he sat up in his seat with a relieved sigh. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she laughed. She sounded like she barely believed it herself. "I'm fine. How are the passengers?"

Vhetin hit another button on the command console and a holo of the cage room shimmered into existence. The two bounties were sprawled on the ship floor and twitching; the shaking of the ship had probably thrown them into the energy field penning them in and knocked them unconscious. Tal Wam was in one corner of the room, clutching at his stun prod as if it were a lifesaver.

"Everyone's fine," he reported. "A little banged up, but fine."

"Thank the Emperor," Jay sighed in relief, the grimaced and covered her mouth with one hand. "Sorry. Force of habit."

They sat in silence for a long time, catching their breath. Jay eventually cleared her throat and sighed, "So… what now?"

Vhetin hadn't thought that far ahead, caught up in the adrenaline and heat of the battle. He quickly turned to the nearest databank and began typing in commands. "Um… according to the navicomputer, we're headed to the nearest Imperial-free system. From there, we'll jump to Coruscant and drop off the bounties. Hopefully Sekha will point us in the right direction from there."

Jay shook her head and stood from her seat. Her balance wobbled a little; the adrenaline obviously hadn't worn off for her either. "Sounds good. I'm going to head back and get some rest. Is that all right?"

Be my guest," Vhetin said, standing and following her out of the cockpit. "I may even do the same. There isn't much to do while we're in hyperspace anyway."

"Good to know. Wake me when the entire galaxy isn't trying to kill us, will you?"

He chuckled dryly. "Sounds good. And Jay?"

She paused and half-turned back to him. He inclined his head and said, "Congratulations. You successfully bagged your first bounty."

She hesitated, then her face broke into a wide smile.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?"