The lightning cracked the sky, illuminating everything in blue, including the two lovers camped out on the hilltop.
"We should head back soon, it's going to rain soon" said the female, a young woman with red hair named Anita Tamver.
The person next to her was Dazen Corrak, he'd joined the rebellion six months ago, at the age of eighteen, and he'd met Anita not long after. It had been love at first sight for both of them. Dazen's dirty blonde hair whipped back in the wind, but he either didn't care or notice, nor did he hear Anita.
"Dazen" she said, gently touching his arm.
He looked at her like he only just noticed she was there.
"We're deploying in the morning, to a place called Endor" he said melancholy
Dazen was part of Yellow Squadron, he flew an A-wing starfighter, he loved flying but he hated war. When Anita had asked why he'd joined the Alliance, he'd said it was because "nobody should have to live under an iron fist". He'd been born and raised onboard a cargo ship called the Light Redemption, owned and operated by his parents, free traders moving from system to system, making a living by trading whatever scrap metal they could find in the ruins of battles from the Clone Wars. Dazen's father had taught him to fly a starfighter using a second-hand A-wing they'd salvaged from the Lothal system. Dazen knew first-hand the terror of the Empire. When he was just fifteen, they'd been stopped by an Imperial patrol. Either because the admiral had to meet some kind of quota or just because he was evil, he'd branded Dazen's parents smugglers and executed them before his eyes. For some reason he took mercy on Dazen and had him transported to an Imperial labour camp, but their shuttle crashed on Naboo. Dazen was the only survivor and it was here that he made his home, before joining the rebels three years later, four years after the legendary Battle of Yavin in which the Death Star had been destroyed by Luke Skywalker. Now here they were, on the planet Molochi II, the rebel base just a few hundred meters away.
"Endor?" Anita tried the word, rolling it around on her tongue, "never heard of it"
"it's not very well known, some little moon out of the way, but-" he wanted to say something, but didn't know if he should, or even if he was allowed.
"But what?" asked the red-head
In the end he relented, "The Empire, they've begun construction on another Death Star, its orbiting Endor, half-built, not yet operational"
It's fair to say Anita was shocked, she remembered the Battle of Yavin, she was just fifteen at the time but she remembered it well nonetheless, the fear, the terror, and then the joy when it was destroyed. Her father was a rebel soldier, and when they heard of the news about the Death Star's destruction he turned to her and said "Hope has returned to the galaxy". Whether he was referring to Luke Skywalker or the rebellion itself she never found out, he'd died on Hoth fighting back the Imperial invaders. Since then it had been just Anita and her mother, after that Anita had trained to become a combat medic, and she'd seen her fair share of death.
"Another Death Star? How's that possible?"
Dazen shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know but, I don't think I'll make it back this time"
Anita stared at him as rain began to pour over them, neither one of them cared.
"Don't you dare say that, of course you're going to make it back, you said so yourself, the Death Star isn't even operational yet".
"What about the TIE fighters, they're the best pilots in the galaxy, and this is my first battle, I've only ever fought in simulations".
She shushed him by putting a finger on his lips, and then she kissed him, hard and passionate. He returned in kind, rolling over on top of her and locking their lips together.
Afterwards, they dressed and went back to the base, they had rooms on two different sides of the base, and they went their separate ways. The next day Dazen woke at dawn along with the rest of his squadron, and they went to the briefing room, where they received their orders, before moving into the hangar to prepare their ships. Anita was there to see Dazen off, they shared a kiss, and then he was in his A-wing flying upwards out of the planet's atmosphere along with five other starfighters.
"May the Force be with you" she said to nobody.