Cowritten with RaekaAmarok
u/6628355/
The explosion shocked her out of sleep. For a moment she was still on Malachor V, death on every side. The blare of alarms on the ship shook her from the last of the nightmare however, reminding her where she was. The Endar Spire, an escort ship for a group of jedi helping fight against the sith. Carth Onasi, the commander and ship's pilot, barked orders over the com instructing everyone to help get Bastila to the escape pods.
"Fuck. Let her die. Then I could have a good fucking night's sleep." Arwen stopped for a moment and rubbed her hand over her face. "Money… remember the money." She squeezed into the last of her armor and then grabbed her blaster. A soldier barely of draft age bursted into the room. He can't be older than 18, if he didn't lie on his draft and is even younger.
"Soldier Maro. Are you the only one here?" he demanded. The shaking of his hand betrayed his bravado. He was as green as they came. She almost laughed. How naive.
"What do you think?" she asked. She checked past him and ran down the hall, the youth on her heels. They turned a corner into a battle. The soldier quickly draws his blaster and begins shooting back. His face is pale as one of the sith soldiers drops under his blast. It's obvious there aren't going to be many survivors from this encounter. There's far too many of the enemy. The survivors are either skilled enough to escape, or bloody lucky.
The fighting is well underway so Arwen ducks behind a corner and begins to return fire. She let off a few rounds before aiming for the light fixture above one of the enemy combatants. A single shot sends a shower of sparks and glass raining down upon them, giving her enough time to pick them off like flies. Once they push past, she witnesses an all too familiar scene. Arwen doesn't even bother to take it in properly.
One of the jedi that had come with Bastila just before the bridge, battling a sith. The jedi wins, and the soldier shouts in triumph, only for another explosion to happen, the jedi sprawling as the ship shakes, ending up pierced through by a loose chunk of metal.
"He...he...that was a jedi that died," the soldier whimpered.
"Don't care." She replied and turned about. "Book it or die." Her heart thunders in her ears as she runs towards her only hope of survival. The com system opened once more.
"Retreat to the escape pods! The bridge is lost! I repeat, retreat to the escape pods!"
The soldier's just a touch too slow. Another sith enters the hallway. The kid doesn't even have a chance to scream before he's cut in half. The sith scans the hallway and begins to chase Arwen down. "Shit." she cursed and sped up. Her finger twitched next to the trigger and she desperately wanted to shoot at the sith, but she knew better. A blaster against a force user was like taking a party balloon to a gunfight.
The commander's voice comes sounded in her ear and she began to wonder if the world just hated her. "You're the last registered life form on the ship. Bastila's escaped. I can hold off the last escape pod for a couple minutes, but if you don't make it I'll have to launch it without you."
"I don't need a ticking clock!" she shouted as she scrambled to get to the escape pod.
Finally, her last hope came into view. She bolted into the pod door and slammed her fist onto the hatch button.
The escape pod is tiny, just made for three or four people if they squeeze in tight. Guess it makes it rather roomy with only her and Carth sitting in there. The guy looks tired, stubble on his face from where he hasn't had time to shave. He slams the button that ejects the escape pod, not even waiting for Arwen to buckle in.
They've barely jettisoned off when the ship explodes. The ship they'd been boarded from is aiming at the escape pods and doing its best to shoot them out of the sky. Most explode in space, only a handful making it to the safety of the planet below. A shot rocks against the escape pod, the last clear moment before Arwen's head slams against something, knocking her unconscious.