That night: 8:34 P.M. Super Star Destroyer Eraser

Bryan Rawling tried to sleep with his head resting on his knees, alone in the darkest corner of his prison cell. He kept himself at peace in his position, using it to conquer his age old fear of darkness. Pitch black was when he was at his worst. Anything could be lurking in it, ready to strike at him. Bryan didn't trust it. His senses were always on the watch when shrouded in it, never giving him peace. Never giving anything he wasn't afraid of—

Tyew!

A blaster shot rang out from outside Bryan's cell. The sound made him jolt in fear. Raising his head, he listened to make sure he wasn't hearing things now. As he did, the door to his cell opened and a short Stormtrooper trotted in. At first, Bryan thought it was his guard, but then he saw his guard laying dead in what would have been a painful position, just outside the cell door.

The newcomer jogged towards Bryan, holding a gun at his side. Bryan took a step back and dropped into an amateur fighting stance, simply bending his knees and raising his arms, fists open, to his waist. The short trooper stopped, and then removed his—

—her helmet. Bryan stared in shock and confusion.

"Here!" Maya Ranadan shouted, tossing him one of the guns. She then put her helmet back on and rushed back to the door, placing her right shoulder against the right bulkhead, aiming her weapon outside of the cell. In the distance, Bryan heard the sounds of boots clanking.

"What? You're not actually expecting me to trust you are you?" Bryan asked her angrily, approaching to where she was.

"No. I'm sorry." She suddenly fired off a shot, and Bryan heard someone grunt outside, and then what sounded like a sack of wood hit the floor. "But I'm your only guide out of here"–she leaned out farther, and fired another shot along the adjacent wall. Bryan heard another grunt and another body fell–"unless you'd like to stay here?" She backed away from the cell door, shoving Bryan back into the cell and shutting the door. She then ducked down and dropped an armed pulse grenade at the lip of the door. Bryan instinctively ran as far back from the door as he could. A few seconds later, the bomb blew, just as the Imperials opened the cell door. The explosion took out the door, and a good portion of two bulkheads the door had been mounted on; as well as a majority of the Stormtroopers that had been at the door at the time the bomb exploded. Maya, fully protected in her own set of armor, was the first to charge out of the cell. Bryan followed suit, having to run a little faster to catch up with her. "I got left!" she shouted back to him, and burst out the door, blasting away. Bryan went right after her, and was forced to stop almost instantly by a shot that went wide left of Maya's arms and whizzed past his face. Blinded for a moment by the bolt's light, Bryan was then forced to retreat back into the cell by a volley of enemy shots fired down the cell bay. Maya backed herself into an alcove created by the far cell bay's bulkhead. They and the enemy Stormtroopers traded pot shots at each other for a long time, no one scoring hits.

Suddenly, Maya dropped back, exposing her more to enemy fire. "Grenade!" she shouted.

Bryan ducked back into the cell as another explosion was set off somewhere close by. The blast sent Maya to the ground, helpless against another volley from the enemy. Just because she betrayed me doesn't mean she deserves to die. Taking a breath of courage, he stepped out into the line of fire and just blasted away, shooting anywhere he saw white armor. He drew all the fire away from Maya as he ducked into the alcove behind him. That gave her enough time to get back into cover, as Bryan managed to hit one of the troopers directly on his forehead, and he fell to the steps he was laying on, dead. There were still four left though, and Bryan was starting to run out of power, as he was sure Maya was.

And then the most terrifying sight possible at the moment happened. The turbolift on the other side of the bay swung open, and five more Stormtroopers came barging out of it, charging towards the fighting. Since they were easier targets, Bryan leveled his blaster up at fired away at them, but missed with every shot.

But they didn't fire back at him. Instead, the new five charged up behind the other four Stormtroopers, and fired at all their backs. The four troopers died a moment later, falling dead on the cell bay stairs. That caused Bryan to stop shooting instantly, and he pulled his gun back against his body, confused. They had just been helped out by Imperial Stormtroopers. His immediate guess was that they were with Maya. He looked over at Maya, who did the same, but was still as confused as Bryan. Maybe not.

The five troopers started blasting away maniacally at the room around them—at the security cameras. Like Luke, Han, and Chewie had in the original Star Wars. In no time, all the cameras were blasted into hulking piles of smoldering bits and pieces. These men were definitely here to help. But who were they?

One of the troopers removed his helmet. A Latino human with a thin goatee put his armored hand up in assurance. "Maya, its me! Its me!"

Maya heaved out a sigh. "Oh," she moaned in relief. "You scared me." She paused. "Thanks guys."

The Latino smiled charmingly. "Welcome. Now lets get outta here, and you"–he pointed at Bryan–"watch where your shooting."

Bryan grimaced in apology. "Sorry about that. Didn't know who you guys were, all I saw was the armor."

The Latino grinned again. "That's all right. Just don't do it again." He started for the door then turned back. "By the way, name's Carlos Sammons, Chief of—" He exchanged disappointed glances with Maya. "Ex-Chief of Security aboard Juniper Outpost."

"Bryan Rawling, Commander of the Rebel Cruiser Faith. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." He gestured to Maya. "We're with her. He walked towards the turbolift. "Let's get going. Won't be long before another platoon gets here."

"What about the turbolift?" Bryan asked as he jumped down the stairs. "By now they're gonna shut 'em down."

"Not now though," Carlos answered. He opened the turbolift doors and curved his arm around inside it, pressing a button on the control pad from outside the lift. Pulling back his arm, he stepped back as the lift doors closed and the car started up the shaft. After that, Carlos wedged his hand in between the closed outer doors of the shaft. He pressed a hidden button on the right door's end, and both hissed open. Carlos ducked his head inside the shaft and glanced up—and smirked. He kept the smirk as he glanced back at Bryan. "Ha, ha. See?" he pointed up the shaft. "You're too slow you mother fuckers!" he shouted up the shaft.

Bryan went to see what he was talking about. And it caused him to smirk as well. The turbolift had stopped partway up the shaft, locked into place by a security code probably. "Idiots," he insulted. He tapped Carlos on his shoulder pad. "Why would we take the elevator? How stupid do they think we are?"

Carlos laughed. "Who knows. Besides, why would we go up? The hangar and our escape is that way." He pointed the opposite way down the shaft. He swung an arm at the rest of the people standing in the room. "Come on guys, this way! And be careful going down!" he shouted, putting his helmet back on. Holstering his blaster, he began the climb down the shaft, Bryan following him.

"One question?" Bryan asked. "How we gonna get past everyone? They'll prolly have guards posted on every floor, and I don' even wanna talk about what the hangar's gonna look like."

"We're not taking any of the floors," Carlos answered first. "Vents." He stopped just above a vent cover. "We've planned a route to the hangar using them." He removed the cover.

"And then what?"

Carlos hesitated. "We improvise." He looked inquisitively at him. "Maya tells me your good at that."

Bryan shrugged nervously. "I'm okay."

"Let's hope," Carlos said as he entered the vent.

"Hey Carlos!" Maya called from somewhere in the shaft. "Is Cano in place?""

Carlos nodded slowly. "Yeah, but there's no way we could've gotten to him, so he's gonna set the bombs off himself!" he shouted sadly.

Bryan's eyes widened curiously at that remark.

"What? No!"

Carlos swallowed heavily. "We tried to talk him out of it!" He called. "But he insisted. He said nothing would give him greater pleasure than blowing up a Super Star Destroyer and killing an Imperial Admiral! So he's gonna blow himself up!"

Maya didn't responded.

"Who's Cano and what's he doing?" Bryan asked Carlos as they turned a corner in the vent.

"Cano is a clerk for Habbor's Hobby Shop on Juniper. He volunteered to help us out. Hates the Empire. Volunteered to remote detonate explosives in the Eraser's core, but we couldn't find a remote with the range for that, so he said he'd blow them up himself, manually. He's in the engine room right now, waiting for our signal."

Bryan understood. "Ah," he said sadly. "Is he young?"

"Sixteen."