Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

More Than One Sort of Prison

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jyn stood anxiously within the cockpit behind the pilot's seat, while Typho stood with his uncle beside her, keeping their eyes on the space straight ahead as it flashed by them. A few of the Royal Guard stood behind them in silence, with one sitting in the passenger's seat to support their pilot. Ric Olie flew the starship through hyperspace towards the source of the signal that R2-D9 transmitted to him as he and Panaka spoke about the old days before the Empire rose into power. If it wasn't for the mission ahead of them being dire, each of them might enjoy being together again after so many years retired.

Ric was interrupted when the droid beeped again and the fighter pilot checked for signs of any other ship around them, then he spoke up saying, "It looks like we may have located more than just the source of your friend's signal. It appears to be coming from a small planet not much further. Since it was a distress signal he sent out, it's most likely that he crashed."

Panaka read the consoles as well, then looked worryingly at his friend before he turned to Jyn and continued, "I'm afraid we weren't the only ones who picked up on the signal. Or your boy had whoever captured him right on his trail. There is a fleet of Imperial ships arriving just off planet, while a few of them entered the atmosphere."

"At least we won't have to fight against a Star Destroyer," Ric added quickly.

"If your men in the ships following us can do something against the fleet, we can go down to the planet's surface and find Cassian," Jyn replied with a pleading look in her eyes as she glanced between the two Captains. "Now's the time. Are you with me?"

Panaka and Typho both nodded, then Ric turned back to look on straight ahead as he set their new course for the unidentified planet, passed along a message to the rest of their fleet to strike against the Imperials ahead, and answered, "It looks like we are, kid. This sure is going to be interesting."

Down on the surface…

Two squads of stormtroopers landed a quarter of a mile away from the crashed escape pod and began to check the wreckage carefully for any sign of their prisoner. When the Rebel Intelligence Officer or his body were nowhere to be found, the soldiers started to look around for any signs of where he might have gone.

There were several broken branches off the trees and planets surrounding them, but that wasn't surprising and hardly much to go on by way of their search, since there was no way to tell if it was caused from the crash of the pod, or someone wounded trying to make their way on foot in search of shelter.

The trooper in charge of the squads called out, "Spread out! We've been given explicit orders to find the Rebel whether he's alive or dead. If dead, we will bring back his body to prove to Vader we've fulfilled our duties."

"He could be anywhere," one of the men responded curtly as he raised his rifle to make sure it was set in the stun configuration, knowing that the Sith Lord would kill him if he attempted to kill the man he was seeking knowledge about the Alliance from. "We might never find him, especially if he's found himself a hole in the ground to hide in."

"He couldn't have simply walked away from this crash on his willpower alone," another of the leaders replied. "Someone had to have helped him, which means there must be a shelter nearby. We're to keep searching until we find him. Is that clear?"

Before the soldier could speak again, a blast from an N-1 Starfighter fired down on them as it flew overhead, killing or maiming a small group standing furthest away from the wreckage while a number of the Royal Guards suddenly attacked them from the distance, a fighter wearing a scarf to cover her head and face leading the charge.

Blasters and rifles on both sides fired as the battle between warriors began. Jyn fought against a number of stormtroopers in order to make her way to the escape pod. She knew that Cassian wouldn't be in it since the Imperial soldiers hadn't found him yet either, but she hoped she would find something that would give her confirmation that it was truly him who had crash landed and not just a ghost she was desperately chasing.

She carefully stepped inside, careful not to touch any of the lose wires and jagged pieces of scrap metal broken off within the wreckage as she searched for any signs that might finally lead her to him. Jyn swiftly spun around upon hearing someone come up from behind her, but instead of it being one of the soldiers whom she expected was there to try to kill her, she saw it was only Captain Panaka who had come to watch her back while she searched. She quickly nodded to him and continued to look through the wreckage.

Panaka struck down two Imperials who charged him and then turned his head to look behind him at Jyn as he called out, "Have you found anything yet? You better hurry."

The younger woman knelt on the seat while she reached down to pull out something that caught her eye, then took a closer look at what she now saw was a small tool kit she immediately recognized as the one Cassian kept tucked inside his left boot. She didn't see him use the tools to help him and their friends escape from Saw Gerrera's prison cell on Jedha, but she did see him use them later on during their flight back to Yavin 4 from Eadu to repair a part of the Imperial ship they had stolen after it had been damaged in the attack they barely escaped from, after their fight. A tiny Rebel insignia adorned the top right corner of the leather pouch. How it ended up there, she didn't know. Yet it was enough for her to know it had been him who had escaped his captors.

Jyn quickly left the pod, then stood beside her new friend as she showed him the kit and stated, "He was definitely here and since they don't have him yet, he's made it out of this mess alive, so far having eluded capture."

She suddenly fired her blaster at one of the stormtroopers who was attempting to sneak up on the Captain, then she continued, "How am I going to find him?"

"Whatever we do, we need to make it fast," Panaka answered worryingly as he fired another shot to kill another assailant. "A small group just broke away to search for him too. I heard one of their leaders give the order. Take Typho and two more of the men with you. I'll stay here with the rest of us and keep fighting, especially if the stormtroopers are backed up by reinforcements. Be careful, Jyn. And good luck."

"Thank you," she responded in sincerity, without having to say for him to do the same and then took off to enlist help from the Captain's nephew and other men.