The night drew on. A barely perceptible breeze rolled down the gently sloping hill, the grass was a lustrous blue and the sky a vivid red and the three figures running down the slope cast jagged silhouettes on the ground beneath the twin moons. A column of smoke rose from the communication tower and the roaring fire crackled and spat sparks into the surrounding hillside.
"Run Faster" yelled the first runner his voice deep and authoritative. As he ran he threw a look over their shoulders and his face was illuminated by the roaring backdrop. He had a light complexion and a messy crop of black hair that was stained with soot and pieces of rubble. His face, normally capable of immense happiness and joy, was fixed in a slight pained grimace and his right cheek was split by a cut that ran from his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth and was dripping blood on to his shirt and the grass below.
His two companions glanced up from their headlong dash to glare at their companion, then shared a look that spoke volumes.
"What do you think we are doing, Idiot" the taller of the two asked, their breath coming in jagged gasps. The man ignored the comment and continued his dash. After another minute or so the three of them reached the bottom of the slope and they dashed past the outer defence perimeter. As soon as they passed the perimeter the three of them stopped and collapsed on the ground and sucked lungful's of air into their protesting chests.
"That was the most stupid thing we have ever done" the third person said after a minute or so when they had got their breath back.
"No it's not Ne-ara, what about the munitions factory on Corillia? That was stupid. This was just interesting" The man said, looking at the pair of them on the floor. The two women were almost opposites in appearance. The one who had called him an idiot was Bethe and she was several inches shorter that his 5' 9" and her hair was wavy, deep red and brushed the top of her shoulders. Her skin was pale and smooth and she had a round face with a mouth apt to laughter and a personality apt to sarcasm. The last of the trio, Ne-ara, was even shorter than her friend and her hair was a burnished mahogany. She had olive skin and a small neat face that had a serious cast to it, so it always looked like she was always slightly disapproving of whatever she was looking at.
Bethe looked up from the ground and stared at the man, who had started to get to his feet.
"No Leonid, I think Ne's right. This is the most stupid thing we have ever done." As she spoke she pulled herself up onto her knees and sat back on her haunches. Leonid looked at her and reached his hand down to her and pulled her up to her feet. She swayed slightly and Leonid put his hands on her arms to steady her.
"You ok?" he asked, a look of concern passing over his face. She nodded and leant into his chest. He pulled her into a tight embrace and laid his cheek on the top of her head.
"Yea, im good" she said, her voice muffled slightly by his chest. She pulled back and looked him straight in the eye. "I think that it was a bit close for comfort this time". Leonid held her gaze for a moment longer and then went over to Ne-ara.
"You ok, Hun?" he asked as she pulled herself up to her feet. She looked up at him and a slight smile creased her otherwise serious face.
"Yea im good. I've just been shot at, nearly buried alive and almost ran to exhaustion. But otherwise fine" she said and a broad grin plastered itself over Leonid's face.
"That was good Ne-ara. Your sarcasm's coming along nicely". The brief light-hearted moment was broken when they heard a shout from up the slope. They all looked and they saw several white armoured figures running out of the burning wreckage of the Comm Tower.
"Shit" Bethe said. As a Sit-Rep it lacked detail, but it covered the basic points well enough.
"Yea, that about covers it" Ne-ara said and the three of them started running again. She pulled a comm-link out of her satchel and flipped through the frequencies until she found the right one.
"Kaay, are you receiving me?" she said into the link. There was a moment's pause before a voice responded.
"Yea im here Ne-ara. Where else would I be?" Her voice took on a slightly exasperated tone "You on your way back?" Ne-ara nodded and then shock her head at the stupid action.
"Yea we are, we need a rapid departure if you wouldn't mind" There was another moment's pause before Kaay responded. This time her voice was questioning.
"Leonid get carried away again?" she asked, while in the background behind her Ne-ara could hear switches being thrown and the noise of the engines powering up.
"Yea, Leonid went a little overboard" Ne-ara confirmed. Leonid called over his shoulder when he heard the comment.
"I did not!" he said. Ne-ara nodded.
"You did Leonid. You shot the door down, blew the roof in and then almost killed us all" Leonid looked at Bethe with an affronted look on his face for a second and then he grinned and blew her a kiss. She look shocked for a moment and then grinned back with a wink.
Kaay didn't sound entirely surprised when she answered.
"Yea that sounds about right. Do hurry won't you. The Empire will not take kindly to you busting up their nice clean installation" Kaay closed the link and Ne-ara put the unit back in her satchel. The three of them kept going until they reached a non-descript hedge adjoining a field of crops. They dived over the hedge and made their way through the crops. They moved slower now, crouching slightly to try and avoid jostling the stalks too much.
"Come on though girls…. It's been a good day" Leonid said to his companions as they made their way across the field towards the shuttle parked on the far side. As they arrived at the end of the field Leonid stopped and looked down a slight incline into a small dell in which was parked the Pioneer. While Bethe and Ne'ara moved past him into the shadow of the shuttle, Leonid took a moment to admire the ship. A "requisitioned" Sheathipede Shuttle that they had acquired a few years ago when they had first started to do these odd jobs. Bethe had modified the interior to make room for their equipment and weaponry and Ne-ara had done her magic with the exterior paintwork. She was quite pleased with the results and Leonid wasn't going to argue with the results.
"We going babe?" Bethe called to him from the ramp of the Shuttle. Leonid shook the nostalgia from his mind and joined his friends on board. The Shuttle ramp closed and with barely a rumble Kaay lifted them off and shot them upwards into the sky.
"Thank you for joining us on this very fast and secure escape from the huge trouble Leonid has got us into this time. Please sit down strap yourself in and shut up" Kaay's voice came from the cockpit and the other three members all laughed. Leonid moved to the door towards the cockpit and leant his head through.
"Hey it's not always my fault Kaay" He called through as he removed his gun belt and hung it on his peg next to the door. Kaay turned around in her chair and looked at him with a pair of raised eyebrows.
"No its not" she said and then after a moments pause she continued "But it is nearly always your fault" Leonid put his hand to his chest in a mock show of shock. Kaay smiled and turned back to the controls. "Now sit down everyone, it might be a bit bumpy" Bethe smiled at this comment.
"When is it not?" she murmured and Ne-ara smiled. The two of them reached the flight seats and strapped themselves in. Leonid moved to the co-pilot seat and strapped himself into it.
"So what's the sky look like?" he asked. Kaay didn't look up from her instruments as she answered.
"There is a bit of chatter from the local garrison, not surprising really given what you did down there. But there is still no ship in orbit so we should be in the clear" she said as she plotted the course out of the system. Leonid nodded and examined his pilot. Her blonde hair was tucked under her peaked Imperial Officer's cap that she appropriated from a captain of the Victory-Class Star Destroyer over Fondor. Her skin was lightly dusted with freckles and her mouth was wide and cheerful. She look at him and caught him staring at her.
"See something you like?" she asked with a slight appraising glint in her eye. Leonid smiled back, matching her look.
"Every day Hun, everyday" he nodded and Kaay grinned and turned her head back to the controls. The journey out of the atmosphere was mercifully short and thankfully uneventful. When they reached the hard vacuum Leonid, who had been sitting quite tense in his chair throughout the journey, relaxed and called back to the girls behind him.
"Looks like we're in the clear" He had no sooner said this when the targeting computer pinged with two contacts coming in at high speed. He glanced down at the scope and quickly identified the incoming contacts as standard Imperial TIE Fighters.
"Never mind that last message, we're in deep shit. Two TIE's incoming at 2 o'clock. Hang on!" he called as Kaay spun the Pioneer away from the approaching fighters and away from the planet. Leonid powered up the forward laser cannons and switched to manual targeting mode.
"We can't outrun them" he said to Kaay as she hunched over the control panel and gripped the steering column.
"Thank you for that revelation Mr States-the-bloody-obvious. I know that we can't but I can try to keep them off until we can get out of here" she snapped back without looking up from her instrumentation.
"Oh, and they have managed to get a message out. They've got help on the way" she said after a second listening to the chatter over the radio. Leonid decided not to speak again unless she asked him for something, she needed to concentrate. The next few minutes were extremely tense and quiet. Leonid kept his eye on the scope and saw that, no matter how hard Kaay tried, the TIE Fighters kept gaining on them. He checked the Navi-computer and compared its estimation of how long until they could achieve Hyperspace to the intercept time of the fighters. His heart sank as he saw that they would catch them at least a minute before they could escape.
"We're not going to make it" Kaay said in a quiet voice. Leonid looked at her and saw that her face had paled and she was looking franticly at him. He put a brave face and smiled thinly.
"Course we are, we've got you at the helm" Her face brightened slightly as she looked away and went back to her controls. Leonid was about to speak again when she suddenly spoke.
"Oh, Shit!" she said as she suddenly grabbed the earpiece she was wearing and stared out of the cockpit window. Leonid looked out as well and saw what she was seeing. He felt the blood rush from his face.
"Shit is right" he said, a strange calm feeling sweeping over him as he turn to his companions in the compartment behind him.
"I don't want to worry you but we have an Imperial-class Star Destroyer on an intercept course" he said to the two girls behind him. They looked at him for a second perhaps expecting a "Ha-ha, Got you" moment. But they were quickly disappointed. Their faces dropped and they shared a look of failure that Leonid did nothing to try and stop.
"So, what do we do?" Bethe asked after a moment's silence. Ne-ara and Leonid locked eyes with each other and Leonid nodded slightly. He looked over at Kaay and she nodded as well. He looked back at Bethe.
"We will do what we always do, we will stand and we will fight" he said. Bethe looked at him and smiled.
"I knew there was a reason why I loved you" she said smiling slightly. His mouth mirrored her smile, as it did any time he looked at her.
"Kaay, straight at 'em" Leonid said and Kaay nodded and turned the Pioneer towards the Star Destroyer.
"We are getting a message from the Destroyer" Kaay said and she turned the radio to loud-speaker.
"Attention unidentified shuttle. This is the Imperial Star Destroyer Relentless. Cut your engines and prepared to be taken into custody for crimes against the Empire" The voice of the Imperial Captain sounded calm and measured, but carried with it the hint of menace. Leonid motioned for Kaay to pass the headset. She passed it over and Leonid slipped it on and tuned it to the Imperial frequency.
"This is Captain Leonid Michalis of the Shuttle Pioneer. I am unfortunately unable to acquiesce to your request, because I have a lot to do and I can't be delayed by you" There was a pause as they waited for a response. They were not left waiting long. The voice of the Imperial Captain came back on, this time his voice was hard and cold.
"This is the Relentless. Power down or be destroyed. There will be no further communication" Kaay took the headset back while Leonid un-buckled and went back to the girls. He knelt down in front of them.
"It's been fun, hasn't it?" he asked taking one of their hands. They both unstrapped from their seats and knelt down beside him and wrapped him in a three-way hug. They stayed there for a few seconds before the girls drew back and looked at him. Bethe saw a tear roll down his cheek and she wiped it away. He looked at her and smiled slightly.
"I love you, both of you. You know that don't you?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly. They both nodded.
"I know" they both said together and hugged him again. The tender moment was broken by Kaay shouting back to them.
"We've got more company" Her voice was almost bouncing in her throat and the three friends stood and went to the cockpit. Leonid sat back in the Co-pilot seat and Bethe and Ne-ara stood behind him and Kaay. They all looked out of the window and saw the same thing. And as one their hearts leapt and they started laughing, almost maniacally in Leonid's case. The cause of their sudden hilarity was dead ahead and was impossible to miss. Kaay twitched the radio onto a different channel and they heard a different voice come down the speakers.
"This is the MC-75 Cruiser Indomitable, calling the fleeing shuttle. Please respond" Kaay stopped laughing, with some difficulty, and turned her radio to transmit.
"This is Kaay O'Neill, pilot of the Pioneer. Thank the force you're here Indomitable. I'm not sure how well we would fare without you" The captain of the Indomitable responded immediately.
"Yes I can't see it being very easy for you. Rendezvous with our support fighters and they will guide you in. We will try and keep some heat of your back." Kaay turned the ship towards the incoming fighter group, comprised of three Z-95 Head-hunters and a single BTL-A4 Y-Wing. As they rendezvoused with them the Y-wing turned and fell alongside them while the Z-95's headed after the still pursuing TIE Fighters. Kaay looked at the rest of the crew and put their thoughts into words.
"Well, that went well" she said. There was a moment's pause and then they all fell about laughing.