A wall of snow and ice loomed before Ginovae, impenetrable and rough. She tried dig for a few seconds until her bare hands were raw with cold. Cursing herself for not grabbing her blaster, she frowned and turned to backtrack. In the distance, she could hear the sounds of laserfire echoing off the walls.
She passed a half-caved in opening that led, if she remembered correctly, towards the shield generator bunker. It was probably a dead end, and so she continued the way she had come. She had barely gone a meter when a voice called out, "Hey – hey, you!"
Ginovae turned and peered around the corner. A man in a set of torn white fatigues knelt next to another man, sprawled on the floor. Ginovae clambered over the rubble and hurried over. "What happened?"
"Ice fell on him," explained the soldier kneeling on the ground. "I'm trying to stop the bleeding, but…" His voice trailed off, and he gave a slight shake of his head.
"Look, the stormtroopers are coming," Ginovae said, dropping to a crouch next to the injured man. She reached for his neck, feeling for a pulse. There was none. "If there's nothing we can, we should get out while we still can."
"Yeah," said the kneeling man, but his eyes remained fixed on the soldier sprawled on the icy floor. There was a crash in the distance, followed by the sound that could only herald the imminent arrival of a large number of stormtroopers.
"Do you mind if I…?" Ginovae allowed her voice trailed off as she reached for the blaster rifle that the dead soldier had apparently dropped. The other man looked over at her and then stood up.
"Go ahead," he said. "Maxim Murett," he added as Ginovae stood.
"Vae Damarcus," she replied, hefting the blaster rifle. "Look, we should get out of here. My transport is blocked, and I'm sure they're already gone by now. What about yours?"
"Me and Sirym were supposed to fly out in a Z-95XT," said Murett, jerking a thumb towards the dead soldier. He regarded her curiously as he moved towards the rubble-filled entrance to he hall way. "Do you think you can manage as co-pilot?"
Ginovae had had basic pilot training before joining the Alliance. "As long as it's not us against a Star Destroyer, I should be fine."
"Don't worry," Murett said wearily as the picked his way over the debris in the corridor's entrance. Ginovae followed, still fumbling with the blaster. "Do you know how to use that thing?"
"Well…" Ginovae mimicked pulling the trigger.
Murett gave a grunt and took the blaster from her. He flicked a knob on the butt of the rifle and handed it back. "The safety's off – now point it anywhere but at me."
Ginovae nodded, embarrassment causing a lump to rise in her throat. She followed silently for several moments before asking, "Where is this Headhunter of yours?"
"Sector one seven," he replied, taking the right tunnel in the fork they had come to.
"We can't go this way," Ginovae protested. "That leads to the command center. It's all but caved in."
"The ship isn't in the command center," Murett retorted, slapping a dangling wire out of the way.
"But don't you think we'll run into stormtroopers?" Ginovae asked, ducking under the same wire. She hefted her blaster rifle and continued forward,
"We'll manage," was his dispassionate reply. He withdrew his own blaster pistol from the holster on his hip.
As if on cue, a bolt of red light came hurtling down the corridor ahead of them. It superheated a segment of the ice, causing it to burst into flame briefly. Ginovae stopped in her tracks and let Murett push her up against the wall. "Blast," he said through gritted teeth.
"We can't just stay here," hissed Ginovae, her blue eyes betraying the fear she felt.
"Throw down your weapons!" ordered an Imperial stormtrooper. He was far enough along the corridor that Ginovae couldn't see him. "Come out with your hands up."
"If there were more than two or three, they'd have killed us by now," Murett whispered. "We can take them." He looked at her for several moments, but his black eyes seemed to stare right through her. Finally, he murmured, "Run back the way we came. Make as much noise as you can. When I say now, turn around and start shooting."
"What?" Ginovae's voice was incredulous, but she managed to keep it near-silent. "We'll both be killed."
"Just do it," Murett ordered quietly. They stared at each other for several moments before Ginovae finally nodded. She turned and ran down the corridor, her boots crunching ice and panels of glass as she did. She had barely begun running when she heard the footfalls of what sounded like a squad of men. She glanced over her shoulder.
Murett was crouched behind a stack of cargo crates. Four stormtroopers, each clad in plasteel cold-weather armor, were giving pursuit. The hammering in her chest was completely unrelated to the physical exertion that came with running. It was all she could do to stifle a shriek when the blaster bolts began flying past her head. "Now!" cried Murett.
Ginovae spun on her feet, crouching low as she squeezed the trigger on her blaster. Hard light screamed at the stormtroopers from the front and the back as she and Murett fired in unison. She spun into a caved-in corridor, which offered cover from their fire. She threw her arm out, squeezed one eye shut and lined the other up with the sight on the blaster, and fired.
Two troopers were already down, and the other two fell in the crossfire. Ginovae tried to catch her breath as she picked her way over the smoldering pile of bodies. Murett reached over and gripped her elbow, helping her. "That was good," he said quietly. "Real good shooting."
Ginovae looked over her shoulder as they rounded a corner, catching one last glimpse of the stormtroopers. She had no regrets, only a cold determination to survive. "Let's get out of here."
Pulling the white combat jacket tighter around her, Ginovae couldn't help but feel isolated. Even with Murett beside her, she was still without any of the people she knew. The other technicians had evacuated early, or so she hoped. Murett's voice jarred her from her thoughts. "Through here."
He pressed a panel to open a door in the expanse of ice. The machinery was jammed, it seemed. Ginovae raised an eyebrow at Murett and he smiled sheepishly. "Step back, Vae," he advised, leveling his blaster at the door panel. Hard red light burst from the end of his blaster and the panel exploded in a shower of sparks. Ginovae glanced down the corridor, looking for signs of stormtroopers coming. It was clear.
Murett finally lost patience with the door, and he threw his weight against it as hard as he could. Ginovae could tell that it knocked the wind out of him by the way he gripped his abdomen, but the door was jarred loose. Ginovae pressed her palms against the door and shoved it to one side. Murett gripped the side and shoved, and together they were able to push the door halfway into the socket – enough for both to slip through. The two-person fighter sat in the damaged hangar, a ladder linking the cockpit to the icy floor.
"Thank the Force," Ginovae breathed as they ran towards the ship. Murett helped her up the ladder, gesturing for her to take the left-hand seat.
"I'll shoot, you fly."
"You think we'll have to shoot?" she asked, looking alarmed.
"Just in case. Do it." They buckled in, Ginovae starting the takeoff sequence. Murett shoved the ladder off the side of the fighter as the repulsors whined, causing the ship to hover. "Punch it."
The world was a blur of blue and white, of rubble and flames, of carcasses and blood. And then they were in the cold vacuum of space.