The clouds that swirled above Bracca were stained purple-red by the lights of the industrial centers below them. The rain had stopped for the night, leaving the city streets to accumulate grime that would never be fully washed away. Metal shavings and oil coated the walkways, distorted reflections of streetlights giving them the illusion of bright white patches.
Lori kept by Armitage's side, helping him along as they hurried down a narrow road.
They had no way of knowing how close they might be to capture or discovery. Being minutes or possibly only seconds ahead of Brixie and the New Republic pilots left Lori on high alert. Each rustle of scrap-rats digging through trash set her nerves on end. A monorail car rumbled as it passed the run-down slums, its harsh noise made all the more alarming by its sudden appearance.
Despite being on edge, Lori didn't show anything of her anxious state. In part because she didn't want to give the panic a chance to consume her, but also because she didn't want to seem like an especially easy target to any passersby. She hadn't seen anyone, but Armitage was obviously limping, and Lori had been in enough dangerous places to know that predators of all kinds attacked the injured and desperate first.
Armitage knew just as well that they were obvious targets, even if no one recognized him. Admitting to himself that he needed help was nearly as painful as the barely healed wound in his leg, and he tried to walk normally with each step.
Hoping that Ardis would remain asleep in her hold for a little while longer, Lori and Armitage continued wordlessly through the city streets. After what felt like hours they came to the edge of an industrial district.
The near abandoned streets turned into wide and busy roads, their sides clogged by workers moving between ships. Overpacked hovercraft and barges meandered between ships, gathering scrap as they went. In the distance loomed the cold body of the Star Destroyer, its nose run deep into the ground and its dead engines pointed up to the clouds.
The short pause that came from Lori and Armitage taking in their new surroundings was enough for Armitage's cane to begin sinking into the muck.
Lori stepped closer to Armitage as she realized he was beginning to lean to the side, "Come on, we can't stop now."
Acutely aware of how out of place a hobbling man with a cane and a woman carrying an infant were in the industrial area, Armitage shrugged deeper into his coat and set off again.
.***.***.***.***.
Lex pinched the bridge of his nose out of equal parts frustration and confusion. He had been sharing the hotel room with another pilot, a human named Baral, who had been a New Republic ranger before the First Order's invasion of the galaxy.
Baral was a great help in the fight, but Lex could barely stand talking to him. The only things that Baral ever said were either condescending reminders of how the rangers used to do things, or snide questions that Lex would have the answer to if he had bothered listening to them in the first place.
"Wait, go over that again." Baral interrupted Brixie, "Hux, and we are talking General Hux, didn't get taken out over Exegol?"
"No," Brixie tried not to betray how exhausted she was getting with re-explaining everything she had said, "He got shot over Kijimi, and Lori rescued him. He can't walk without help, but we still need to hurry."
"Right…" Baral still wasn't sure where Lex knew Brixie from. Baral didn't know much about Lex to begin with, other than the fact that he had been amongst the rebels that escaped from Crait. While that alone was enough to tell Baral that Lex could be trusted, he was still trying to figure out how Brixie fit into this, and he had no idea who Lori was supposed to be, "So, he's just laying down there in room 108. Well Lex, it looks like tomorrow's going to be a big day."
The arrogance dripping from Baral's words was almost enough to make Lex punch the man, but he held back, "No, we have to handle this now. Go wake up the others, this could get messy."
Baral wasn't expecting to do anything about this supposed tip until the morning, "Really? There's what, a lady, a baby, and a wounded officer that never fought a day in his life? They're not going anywhere, and we know what they look like if they do, can't this wait until morning?"
"Well, 'that lady' managed to dupe the entire Resistance for a year." Lex spoke with a bitter tone before standing up, "I'm not taking any chances. Let's go."
Standing with a huff of annoyance, Baral did as he was told but still complained, "Back before the First Order invaded, new guys knew not to boss around their seniors."
"Back before the First Order invaded, the rangers had twelve X-wings, no pilots to fly them, and zero credits to their name." Lex grumbled back before following behind Baral.
"Lex," Deciding not to get involved with whatever petty squabble was between the two men, Brixie stepped after him, "Mitaka is also down there. I know this just makes the story more complicated, but he's on our side."
Baral stopped at the door, ready to ask who Mitaka was supposed to be. Lex looked between Brixie and his coworker before muttering, "Baral, just go get the others. I'll meet you downstairs."
.***.***.***.***.
Lori only had a rough idea of where the large shipments were being launched from. Navigating through the twisting paths between wreckages proved more difficult than she had expected, and the only thing to guide her was the occasional rumble from the lift off of a freighter.
"Lori," Armitage huffed from her side, "we need to stop."
While progress had been slow since the very start, Armitage was now struggling to take so much as a step. A thin layer of sweat painted his brow and, though he tried to hide it, his breath was pained and ragged. Though not to same extent, Lori had also grown tired, being bogged down by Ardis' weight.
Reluctant, Lori did as Armitage asked. Casting a quick glance around, she spotted a heap of scrap next to two welders. Adjusting her hold on Ardis, Lori offered a hand to Armitage before guiding him to the pile.
It was just large enough to sit down on, though doing so earned confused looks from the workers. After it was clear that neither Lori nor Armitage were there to steal any of the scrap, the workers turned back to their task, though they exchanged questioning glances.
"Take as long as you need," Lori offered.
Armitage didn't spend his breath on a reply. They both knew that they didn't have the time to spare; Brixie had no doubt discovered that they were missing. Though neither she nor the New Republic pilots had any way of knowing where they had gone, they weren't difficult to find. And if they were discovered there wouldn't be any hope of out running their would-be captors.
As the grim reality of the situation set in on Lori and Armitage, the indifferent commotion of the industrial area continued around them.
Ardis had been sound asleep for the first leg of their journey. But, the hissing drone of the welder besides them and the continual rattle of scrap on passing hovercraft made for a rude awakening. Cranky and confused at the sound Ardis woke up and immediately began a shrieking cry.
Wincing at the sound and increasingly difficult situation, Lori searched for any kind of solution. Though she had hoped to be as anonymous as possible on their journey, Lori admitted to herself that that probably wasn't possible.
Holding Ardis closely, Lori turned towards the welders, "Hey! Hey you two! Yeah, both of you."
Curious despite their need to make the day's quota, the two welders lowered their torches, one of them pulling down her respirator in order to talk, "What do you want?"
Regretting the fact that these two people would definitely remember them if asked, Lori shouted slightly to be heard over the sounds of industry and Ardis' crying, "We're lost. We're looking for the shipping yards."
"The landing pads are that way," the welder pointed back the way they had come.
"No, the production line."
"Production?" the welder wondered to herself, "That's five miles down the road, and they aren't selling if that's what you're thinking."
Taking the welder's assumption and running with it, Lori replied, "No harm in asking. Five miles is a bit far, are any of these hovercraft headed that way?"
The welder looked at Lori with a confused annoyance she usually reserved for out of touch core-worlders, "Our scrap goes to the foundry, it's next door. But the overseer-droids aren't just going to let you ride along. We are doing actual work here, you know."
Lori caught and purposefully ignored the snippy tone, "Ok, thank you. I'll let you get back to work then."
Curiosity satisfied with the knowledge that the two adults and screaming child were just out of touch visitors, the welder replaced her mask and set back to work.
Patting Ardis on the back in an attempt to calm her down, Lori turned back to Armitage, "Ok, so I have a plan. I just don't think it's a good one."
As Armitage opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by a short cough. Recovering he said, "That's never stopped them from working before."
Thankful as she was for the vote of confidence, Lori wasn't optimistic, "Mostly thanks to luck. Here, you keep an eye on Ardis, I won't go very far."
As Lori lowered the crying child onto a mostly flat and stable section of the scrap heap, Armitage asked, "What else can I do?"
Sure that the welders were busy once more, Lori still spoke as quietly as she could, "Just hold tight. I wanted to do this without attracting attention, but we're in no shape to walk five miles. A hovercraft should be by to pick up this scrap, one way or another we'll be on it too."
.***.***.***.***.
Shouting followed by heavy footfalls thundered through the hotel room.
At first dark, and then lit by narrow but bright beams, the still room was suddenly filled with commotion.
Startling at the noise, Mitaka awoke with a fright. Eye wide open, he was met with a glaring flash that blinded him. He turned away from it. Incoherent shouting bounced off the walls, deafening him to any coherent command from the invaders.
Halfway out of a tangle of sheets, Mitaka was suddenly forced down.
Rough hands pressed on his back and around his wrists, forcing him face down into a pillow and muffling his shouts in the process, "Let me g-go! L-let me go!"
The pressure didn't relent, though the invader's shouting slowly died down. After a long second the loudest sound remaining for Mitaka was the rushing of blood and the thundering sound of his own pulse.
"Room's clear." One gruff voice spoke from just behind Mitaka. He didn't recognize it.
"We sure this is the right room?" Another asked from the side.
"108, this is it. The other bed's disturbed; they knew we were coming."
"Damn it!" the first voice shouted, the grip on Mitaka's wrists tightening in time with it.
Just beneath the shout, there was another set of footsteps, these somewhat lighter than those that had burst into the room.
"What? They're gone?" Brixie's voice was clear and easily recognizable, "Hey, let him go."
There was a short pause before the grip around Mitaka's wrists released and the pressure was let off of his back. Utterly shocked and still flooded with adrenaline, Mitaka wasted no time in turning over and sitting up.
The lights were on, and he blinked against them while his vision adjusted. When it did, he found five people in the room. A weequay and a lasat stood by the abandoned bed, a crolute stood beside Mitaka, apparently having just released him. Two humans stood at the far side of the room, Mitaka recognized one of them from the rebel camp. He'd been a friend of Brixie's, though he hadn't talked to him often, the rebel usually being off planet on a mission.
Looking between Brixie, the abandoned bed, and the handful of armed men, Mitaka quickly pieced together what had happened.
"I didn't hear them leave." He offered defensively.
Knowing that Lori had anticipated her actions, Brixie tried not to give into the sense that she had just betrayed a friend.
She's not your friend anymore, Brixie tried to remind herself. She probably never was.
While Brixie grappled with her thoughts, Lex didn't waste time on questions or confusion.
"Klieg," he looked around the room as he spoke, "You and Dina search the room and hotel. Balar and Gygax, go find whatever passes for the government of this planet and tell them what's going on. Brixie, you're with me. They can't have gotten very far."
Though Balar began to protest, the others quickly set about their tasks.
Lex was about to leave as well, but Brixie stopped him before turning to Mitaka, "You're coming too. Remember what you told me the other day."
Mitaka did remember that he suggested they turn Hux in. It seemed to him like Brixie had already tried. Whatever the case might be, he wasn't about to challenge her.
"O-of course. Let me get dressed."
.***.***.***.***.
Finding a worker's poncho that no one would miss took less than five minutes. Finding enough functioning electronics to cobble together a functioning power override tool took considerably longer.
While Lori was no stranger to on-the-fly ship repairs, she wasn't keen on many other technical tricks. Luckily for her, Armitage had spent over a decade heading, and sometimes micromanaging, most of the First Order's technical research and development.
Returning to the scrap heap with her handful of components, Lori was happy to find that the welders had moved slightly further away, and were still minding their own business.
"Has the hovercraft been by?" she asked as she approached Armitage and Ardis.
"No, and the welders haven't paid me any mind." He answered, one hand resting on his cane while the other kept hold of Ardis.
To Lori's relief, the infant had stopped crying, but she was slightly red in the face and very irritated.
"Great. I got a look at the overseer droids, and they're all X2H-series. Can you put together some kind of power override system? I don't know if this battery has any charge to it, but overloading a droid and hijacking its hovercraft might be our best shot."
Armitage hesitated slightly when Lori offered him the components she had gathered. Realizing that he had his hands full, she set the things down before picking Ardis up.
Left with a jumble of machine components, Armitage considered them, "I can figure something out, give me a moment."
He wasn't familiar with the X2H series, the First Order had never used them, but most droids used a universal receptor. Looking at the components, Armitage was fairly certain he could get at least one use out of the battery, even if it had a low charge.
He also knew that Lori's plan was risky, and executing it would almost certainly alert the workers that something was wrong.
Like it or not, he couldn't think of anything better.
Lori adjusted her hold on Ardis as Armitage worked. When she did, she noticed that the infant seemed intent on something over her shoulder. Fully expecting to see Brixie or one of the pilots running after them, Lori turned to follow Ardis' line of sight.
Dropping the tension from her shoulders and then immediately bringing it back, Lori found a near empty hovercraft approaching from down the street.
"Better work a little faster," she goaded Armitage on.
He'd barely had a minute. Luckily most of the components already had exposed wiring, all he'd really needed to do was identify parts and twist wires together. He didn't look up as the rattling sound of the hovercraft drew near, instead quickly wrapping a wire around an exposed ring terminal so that a light in the scomp link flashed on.
"Don't touch any of the metal," Armitage warned as Lori turned back to face him.
Looking at the raggedy tool, Lori set Ardis back where she had just been before carefully taking it.
"Alright, just play along for a second." She told Armitage just as a hovercraft drifted to a stop.
Not missing a beat, Lori slipped the thing under her poncho before turning around with a tired air to her. Suddenly seeming the perfect picture of a disgruntled worker, she spoke to the droid, "Good, you're here. I've been trying to tell these people to leave, but they're not moving."
"I am here to collect scrap. They must move." It dispassionately replied.
"Yeah, that's what I've been telling them," Lori repeated herself with an irritated edge.
"There is a quota. They must move." The droid stood on the barge-like hovercraft that floated just a couple feet off the ground. Lori wouldn't be able to reach the data transfer port on its back without either climbing up, or having it climb down.
"Then why don't you get down here and tell them that?" She gestured over her shoulder at Ardis and Armitage, "Because they aren't listening to me."
The droid looked beyond Lori towards the scrapheap where Armitage sat with Ardis. Judging that repeating itself would yield no result, it stepped off the edge of the barge and landed upright in the mud with a wet thud.
Stepping to the side to let the droid pass, Lori didn't need to wait long before she could jam the tip of the scomp link into its rear charging port. Moving quickly, she narrowly avoided a shock as the droid jerked with a sudden jolt of energy, its arms flailing as the rotator cuffs in its shoulders were overcharged. The loud display only lasted for a second before sparks shot out of its visual receptors and the whole thing landed face first in the mud.
Dropping th enow useless tool, Lori took a hasty step forward to collect Ardis, "Come on, there's no way no one dis-"
Lori was interrupted by a shout. "What did you do?!"
Before anyone said anything else, Armitage hobbled off the scrap heap and hurried to the barge. Lori quickly outpaced him, setting Ardis on the flat surface of the hovercraft before climbing up and frantically going through the control panel.
The engine was still on, and she had only just released the brakes as Armitage came to the hovercraft's side. Unable to climb at all, he simply sat on the ship's edge before leaning back and ungracefully rolling more fully onto it.
While Armitage struggled to find a stable position, one of the welders had quickly closed in on the hovercraft. She just managed to put a hand on the top of the barge at the same time that Lori found its speed setting. The thing wasn't built for speed, but it lurched forward with a sudden acceleration before settling down well above running speed.
The welder holding the side of the barge fell face first into the mud. Armitage slid back, coming to a stop mere inches from the rear edge of the ship. Ardis shirked, but was in no danger as her back was firmly set against the center console.
Leaving behind a series of confused shouts, Lori steered the ship towards the foundry. The thick plumes of black smoke weren't her final destination, but they served as a convenient beacon to navigate by, their source being just next to the shipyards that were her ultimate goal.
As the barge settled into a steady speed, Armitage pulled his way forward, only coming to a stop when he was next to Ardis.
"That could have gone better." He huffed from the floor.
"Could have gone worse." She replied, sparing a quick glance down.
As she did, she was greeted not just by Armitage's flushed face, but also by a flashing alert on the barge's control panel. Thinking that it was a warning light for how quickly they were moving, she tried to dismiss it. As she looked closer, she realized that it wasn't a speed alert at all.
As far as Lori could tell, the barge had some sort of built-in communication system, to alert the drivers to weather conditions and suddenly blocked off roads. At the moment, however, a special bulletin had appeared.
"Be on alert," it read, "wanted First Order criminals General Armitage Hux -Human, male, 1.85 meters- and Major Lori Gallus -Human, female, 1.70 meters- are at large. Last seen at Greezo's Motel. Traveling with infant."
A pit formed in Lori's stomach as she skimmed the message. Compared to it, the stolen hovercraft was the least of their problems.