AN: Thank you as always to aewgliriel for the Star Wars knowhow.
Chapter 8: Evacuation pt. 1(Jyn/Han/Leia)
My suitcase becomes a memorial site
For those who were not allowed to pack their holy books,
Those who were forced to pack very fast
without planning beforehand
without a weather forecast
without the time to sip some white wine
to drive away melancholia before departure
from Grunewald.
— Written and translated from the Hebrew by Galit Hasan-Rokem.
Things happen very fast, a lot of small events piling on until the breaking point.
Or maybe it's more like tremors leading up to a big quake.
Her leg is aching. Just like the nurse warned her, sometimes it flares up and she doesn't even know why but the pain starts in her thigh and shoots up into her back or down into her knee. It's not keeping her from her day but it's annoying and it's slowing her down, much can be said for the other scars she can't see.
She's on edge and she's not sure why. Luke is fine and recovering in the med bay. Bodhi said he was going to wait until they released the young jedi in training.
He wouldn't say why he was upset after talking to Luke. She had several guesses but she had pressed him enough for awhile, so she let it lie.
Maybe it was that look on Leia's face when she got called away to check out some probe. She just short of yelled at Han about him leaving and she didn't know Han had any plans to leave.
She can't say she was surprised by the news. Han is far too much like her and antsy at the idea of being tied down. Even she feels hemmed in sometimes but there are people keeping her here and they matter more than the occasional bout of restlessness. Han doesn't seem quite so attached. Or maybe not as comfortable with being attached and there is a difference. She knows it well.
She's not always comfortable with how attached she is, but she is attached and she can't do anything about it now. She can only brace herself and hope her worst fears don't come to pass.
And Leia looked unsettled by something, it might have been Han leaving or something else. That girl is so perceptive sometimes. Jyn trusts the princess' instincts almost as much as her own.
If something has Leia on edge, there might be a good reason to be worried.
And Jyn is worried.
She goes to work in the hangar because there is nothing else to do in the med bay and Jyn can only wait so long. She leaves Bodhi to his solitude (He seemed like he wanted some in that moment) and she goes to the comforting and familiar process of taking things apart and putting them back together. The work is soothing and normally that's enough but there's something that nagging at her. Like an itch she can't scratch, something is bothering her.
Cassian said he would go check in with Draven, seeing as they both neglected their duties until the middle of the day to see that Luke was alright. So she's by herself in the hangar, beside Wolmic and whoever else is running around. Nobody is sitting with her today and that is giving her mind too much space to think. It's not helping with the worry.
Han comes back from somewhere and across the hangar she can hear him bickering with Chewie about the latest repairs they are doing on the Falcon.
Probably the last repairs they need so they can leave.
Jyn tries not to think about that either.
She works for several hours, long enough to lose track of how much time has passed.
Then the alarms start and she nearly jumps out of her skin. The sound of the blaring klaxon is nearly overwhelming and the hangar is suddenly full of pilots climbing into their ships. She hurriedly finishes up her work and goes running to find Bodhi or Cassian or anybody to tell her what's going on.
When the base rumbles and quakes like the shifting of tectonic plates, she realizes they're under attack.
Han is working with Chewie on the Falcon. He's mostly confident that the hyperdrive is fixed. Han jumps off his perch and speaks into the comlink
"Okay, Chewie, try it now."
And the wookiee powers up the Falcon for barely a second before sparks start shooting out of where he was just working
"Off, Chewie! Turn it off! " he yells into the commlink and the ship powers down. That's when the ground shakes and alarms sound. The hangar is rapidly filling with bodies running to and fro and this many people running to their ships can only mean bad news.
He speaks into the commlink, "Chewie, we need to pack it up, get the Falcon flight ready."
Chewie replies with a very vulgar word from his home planet that makes Han raise an eyebrow.
It's not his fault the Falcon needs a little work. She's an old ship and she needs parts and possibly better mechanics (Although the base is full of better mechanics and he wouldn't let them touch his precious ship so maybe it's a little his fault.
He hauls a few things up into the ship before glancing around the hangar. He can see Bodhi running towards his X-Wing alongside Luke (who still looks a little rough around the edges, but apparently the doctors saw fit to release him).
In the far edge of the hangar Jyn's packing up her tools looking around with wide, panicked eyes. She catches Bodhi and Luke and before Han has a chance to run over, she's pelting off. The ground quakes beneath them with another close hit and this is very bad.
He wants to demand to know what's going on but he kind of already knows. That probe was sending out an Imperial signal and the Empire found them.
This is very, very bad.
The PA is blaring announcements about evacuations and he needs to move. It won't take a lot of hits to make this place come crashing down around their ears.
Leia has a job to do and she can put aside her own anxieties quite capably in order to do it.
Besides, she's been worried for awhile. This whole thing has a sense of inevitability to it. Like maybe it fate or the Force or simply time for the Rebellion's luck to run out once again. As soon as the fleet of Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace in sector four, she knew.
She very quickly hashed out a strategy with General Rieeken, it's more or less their usual evacuation strategy, but now they have to deal with Star Destroyers in orbit and whatever other reinforcements the Empire will bring.
She heads down to the hangar to brief the pilots.
"All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports," she tells them all. Her eyes find Bodhi in the crowd, and he attempts a smile at her before staring down at the ground beneath his feet.
"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" One of the pilot's asks, she's pretty sure this one is named Hobbie. She more or less ignores the crux of his question and continues.
"The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path. When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood?"
And the pilots let out a chorus of yes's and understood's.
She has no answer for that pilot because the Rebellion is perpetually short of fighters. They will never match the Empire's numbers and two fighters is all they can spare. Some pilots need to stay on the ground and combat the planetside reinforcements.
"Good luck," she tells them and one of the commanders orders everyone to their stations.
She catches Bodhi before he can head off.
"May the Force be with you," she tells him and he sort of shrugs one shoulder and doesn't meet her eyes.
"You, too."
Jyn wanted to go running the minute the alarm sounded, but she finished what she was doing and packed up her tools. She knew there were protocols for these sorts of situations but she wanted to run. She wanted to find her friends and run.
She's finished in time to hear the tail end of some briefing from Leia. She goes marching away before Jyn has to chance to flag her down and but Bodhi is still there, running towards a snowspeeder.
She races towards him.
It looks like Shara's with him.
"Looks like you get me as your co-pilot, rookie," she's saying with a wicked grin as Jyn rushes over.
She's about to call out or something when Shara seems to notice her running and lightly kicks Bodhi's leg and nods over his shoulder at Jyn.
He whirls to face her as she finally reaches them feeling a little winded and trying not to wince as her damn leg chooses today to be a literal pain.
"Jyn," he says and she can see the familiar panic in his eyes.
"What's happening?" she asks him and he shakes his head a little, looking down at the ground.
"The Empire happened," Shara says from where she's standing by the ladder for their speeder. Jyn glances at her once with a nod and then back to Bodhi.
"Have you seen any of the others?" she asks and again Bodhi shakes his head.
"Luke should be catching up to us here in the hangar soon, he was properly awake when I left the med bay. Leia was just here for a briefing. Other than that…" he trails off helplessly and something tightens in her gut.
She nods and glances at their ship again, "They're putting you in speeders? You can't break atmosphere with those," she says and Bodhi shrugs.
"The X-Wings take forever to start and it looks like we have Imperial ground troops to ward off out there. Rogue Squadron will have to come back and grab our X-Wings when it's time to leave I guess. All the other squads are escorting transports to the rendezvous point."
And that sounds reasonable enough except for the part where the X-Wings start up too slow and they won't be more time later. She clenches her fists and reaches out to grab Bodhi in a rough embrace. She can feel his arms wrap around her just as tight.
"Good luck," she says tightly before taking a step back, "I'm going to find Cassian and the others."
Bodhi nods back looking teary and the base trembles again reminding them how little time they have. She gives him one last nod and bolts.
Leia oversees the battles as they happen, right there with General Rieekan. C-3PO sits beside her, twittering anxiety that she chooses to ignore because she doesn't have the time to pay the droid any mind.
She watches other personnel leave the command center and head for their evacuation transports and she can't leave. Luke and Bodhi are out there fighting the ground forces and she can hear the chatter. They hadn't anticipated snow walkers. She's monitoring the evacuations as well, something in her loosening with every ship that goes to lightspeed.
They always survive by the skin of their teeth and Leia prays to whatever Forces are listening that they can pull off that miracle again.
She also prays she can get them all out and still make it out alive herself.
Han pockets the few things he kept in his quarters when the whole base judders so badly the lights flicker and a piece of the ceiling comes crashing to the ground.
There have been announcements about the transports as they leave the base. He lost track of how many when a new thought occurs to him.
One singular thought and he doesn't really have time to consider it or doubt it, instead he goes running for the command center.
The halls are chaos.
The base is falling apart around their ears and whatever crew is left on base is racing towards the hangar. The ground underfoot shakes so hard he nearly loses his footing and has to swerve out of the way of falling chunks of ceiling and ice.
When it passes he keeps running and turns the corner to find Leia standing amidst what looks like half a cave in. She's leaning over one of the monitors looking wholly unperturbed by everything around her when Han is feeling really quite perturbed.
"Are you alright?" He calls out from the doorway and she whirls to look at him and yells
"Why are you still here?" with such rancour he almost smiles right then and there because his life is a travesty and this is what it has come to. He should not be this happy to see the girl who hates his guts but what can a guy do?
"You got your clearance to leave," she says with only slightly less irritation and there really is only one course of action here.
"Don't worry. I'll leave. First I'm going to get you to your ship."
"Your Highness, we must take this last transport. It's our only hope," C-3PO says in his usual terrified way, but Han has to add,
"See? Even the droid agrees with me."
Leia glares at both of them before turning back to the monitor and the controller.
"Send all troops in sector twelve to the south slope to protect the fighters," she says and another blast rocks the command center, nearly toppling 3PO. Han actually catches the damn droid and sets him upright before saying, "Come on... that's it," and grabbing Leia by the elbow with the full intent to drag her out of here before they're all crushed. She throws a few final commands over her shoulder to the head controller, but she lets Han guide her out.
"Give the evacuation code signal. And get to your transports!"
As they head for the door Han can hear that damned droid calling out, "Wait for me!"
And he does because Leia shoots him a pleading look and he is the most pathetic human in the galaxy. He thinks that if they get crushed on this stupid base he will die blaming it all on the droid.
She can't find Cassian. She can't find Baze or Chirrut or any of them . Bodhi and Luke are safe...or at least they won't be in the base if it collapses. They won't be safe from blaster fire or TIE fighters and Jyn's panicking.
Distantly she hears an announcement of "The fourth transport is away," and wonders how many transports there are at all.
Cassian isn't in Draven's office and neither is Draven. He isn't in his quarters and she's running almost blindly, her heart and mind and everything fracturing into a thousand paralyzed pieces of fear.
Still, she keeps running as the walls of the base shudder around her. Pieces of ice fall from the ceiling and she keeps running.
She has to find them.
They have to evacuate and she has to find them first.
She has to.
Then she runs headlong into a body and nearly topples to the ground.
They're running and he keeps slowing to check that both she and the droid are keeping up. The ground shakes and he can see the cracks in the ceiling start to form.
Both of them are skidding to a stop when the hall starts to cave in and he doesn't really think, he just grabs the girl before they hit the ground. A few pieces of ice smack against him hard enough to bruise, but not break and he gets off her when the shaking stops.
But it looks like their path is blocked.
There is no way they can get to the transport now.
He digs out his commlink as Leia slowly stands up and brushes some of the ice and dust off herself.
"Transport, this is Solo. Better take off - I can't get to you. I'll get the princess out on the Falcon."
And then with a glance at her they go racing back the way they came with 3PO crying out, "Where are you going? Come back! "
Han is just opening his mouth to shout an answer over his shoulder when he runs headlong into somebody running just as fast and it throws him back a few steps.
It's Jyn and he can tell she's panicking. He can tell that it's bad.
(Bad like after the Death Star, on the flight home where he saw the girl coming apart at the seams)
He also knows that the whole place could come down at any second and there isn't any time. He grabs her by the elbow and pulls her along with them.
"No, wait, I need to find Cassian and the others," she shouts breathlessly behind him.
"I'm sure they're fine, kid, but if we stay here any longer, we won't be."
Jyn's panicking, it feels like she's shutting down. She can hardly breathe, let alone think.
She couldn't find Cassian or Baze or Chirrut and now Han is dragging her towards the Falcon. As soon as they reach the ramp she tries to stand firm, "Han I need to…" and she really does need.
She needs more than she needs oxygen in her lungs and blood in her veins, she needs.
"Kid, we'll figure out when we're off planet, right now I would very much love it if none of us died so for the love of Force, move. "
He doesn't actually let go of her arm until they're in the cockpit. He shouted something to Chewie as they arrived but she wasn't listening and now she's sitting in the cockpit feeling like she might vibrate out of her skin. She doesn't know where they are.
She doesn't know where they are.
She doesn't even know about Bodhi or Luke. What if they got shot down out there? Did they get to their X-Wings in time? The fear of it locks her in place and Leia's glancing at her with a pronounced sort of worry all while Han is sitting in the pilot's seat flicking switches and shouting to Chewie where he is outside the ship.
"How's this?"
The Wookiee barks what sounds like a no.
"Would it helped if I got out and pushed?" Leia asks with irritation in every line of her body and Han shoots her a dirty look.
"It might."
That's when C-3PO clanks into the hold and Jyn didn't even realize he was with them. It's a strange sort of relief knowing at least one of the droids is okay.
Of course C-3PO also one of the most annoying droids she's ever met, but seeing another familiar face, even a mechanical one, is a small comfort.
And he's talking to Han, "Captain Solo, Captain Solo... sir, might I suggest that you…" he trails off when Han shoots him a look that is positively irate.
"It can wait," C-3PO says and he clanks off, presumably to find somewhere to sit down when the ship takes off.
Jyn meanwhile, tries to control her breathing and tries to control the way her heart is try to pound a hole in her chest. She tries to think around the fractures and fragments that paralyze her thoughts. She clenches the armrests of her seat and Leia keeps glancing between her and Han who runs in and out of the hold, presumably to fiddle with other controls on the ship.
"This bucket of bolts is never going to get us past that blockade," Leia snaps at Han.
"This baby's got a few surprises left in her, sweetheart," he replies and they can all see the squad of stormtroopers rushing into the hangar with weapons. Han pushes a few more buttons and from underneath the Falcon lasers shoot out at the troops while Leia and Han buckle themselves into their seats and Leia looks meaningfully at the straps of Jyn's chair.
Jyn wants to run, she wants to find the others, she's sorely tempted to and she's staring back behind them, down the hall. It feels like she's dooming them if she just sits here.
Somehow Han must sense it because a hand clamps tightly on her arm and when she whirls to face forward, it's Han glaring fiercely at her.
"Don't you dare, kid, it's a death trap out there right now. I'm sure the others got on one of those transports. I'm sure they're fine. "
She knows he's at least half right. It is a death trap out there now with a hangar full of troopers. The truth is she lost her chance as soon as she let him drag her to the Falcon and she's only just realizing that now.
She meets Han's gaze.
"If something happens to them, I'll never forgive you," she says and Han lets go of her and inclines his head.
"Fair enough, now buckle up," he says and Chewie comes racing into the cockpit.
"Chewie, switch over. And let's hope we don't have a burnout."
A laser hits the ship, making it rock. A second impact follows shortly after. Out the window Jyn can just make out what looks like a heavy shooter like something Baze might carry, set in the snow and aimed at them.
Chewie pulls back on the controls and the engines fire up beneath them, Han looks over at Chewie and mutters,
"Punch it."
And with that they rise into the air and leave the hangar behind in one swift motion. Just as swiftly Jyn is out of her chair and racing down the hall.
"Jyn!"
She hears her name being shouted and she ignores it. She doesn't have the words to explain, she just needs to see it. The ship shudders underfoot as they take another blast but she manages to stay upright and keeps running.
There's a window towards the back of the ship near the engines. She presses her cheek to the transparisteel to try and make out the base. Something in her refusing to calm and needing to see it. She can see the shield generators and her eyes find the wide circle of ground that must contain the base underneath. As they wheel through the air she gets a better view, and as she watches, the base collapses inward.
A scream tears from her throat.
It's like all of her worst nightmares coming true in an instant. A horror grips her as she watches what had been her home for two years fall to pieces.
If they were still on the base, they're dead now.
It feels like she's coming undone.
It feels like she's watching the world end.
AN: SO remember a bazillion years ago, literally it was during part 1 of this when I started talking about writing into Empire and having an idea that would make y'all possibly hate me? Well voila my dudes. Welcome to the angst. Now we are going to find out exactly what actually happened to Cassian and Bodhi in the next few chapters so there's that. Jyn is obviously a very panicked narrator with a limited purview of what's actually happening.
I think you can all kinda guess where this is going so I'm just going to say ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN CHOO CHOOOO.
(also just based on reviews I think I did genuinely lose readers by just clarifying super hard my stance on sexy stuff. Basically I appreciate all y'all who are sticking with this and still reading. I appreciate you immensely.)
