10 The breakout
Leia woke up to the world shaking apart around her. She fell from her curled spot on the hard cot, sacking an elbow on the short way down to the ground.
"Harchaak!" She spat, leveling her small frame up in an instant.
The clothes the Imperials had given her wasn't small enough, being only a size or 3 bigger in the shoulders then her slight frame. The pants were also a couple inches too long for her, having come from second lieutenant Barses.
"You ready to get out of here, Aruetii ?" Din asked, tossed her a heavy WESTAR-35 blaster as the door opened sluggishly.
"Where's my DC-17 ?" The girl asked, snatching the gun and moving to take the lead through the hallway.
"Didn't have time." Paz called out, his strong hefty frame appeared around the corner. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and a couple new scuffs on his blue armour. "Let's go."
StormTroopers were beginning to pour in from all directions. Most of them didn't have their full Blacks on, having woken up with the Di'kuts' entrance. Leia icily noted that less than an eighth even had proper stance as they took position.
"Five." Din snarled happily, pointedly using his other '35 and taking down several stormies with a single shot each.
Leia could hear the joy in his voice, his body strung tight as he spun easily behind a pillar as they dodged.
"And how exactly do you plan to get out of here, Di'kut ?" Leia snarked, popping out of the corner to fire some shots. "If you haven't noticed, we're surrounded!"
The three were being steadily pushed through the maze of hallways, having to dodge and crouch as they moved in the opposite direction of the entrance.
"Three more, vod!" Din cackled, flying across the hallway to land behind another pillar. Paz growled silently, picked off a stormie and yanked Leia backwards into the corner. The elder got a brilliant stink eye for his trouble.
"Twenty seven." Paz yelled out, giving Din a rude gesture.
Din lobbed a grenade into the cluster of Stormies, tilted his head and stated proudly. "That's two twenty and five to your twenty seven, vod."
"Grenades do not count!" Paz snarled, bolstering his blaster pistols and slung the rifle off his back in one easy motion. They were nearing the end of the hallway and Leia happened to know that there were no staircases in that direction.
"They do though!" Din would have been bouncing like a jumpscare if he wouldn't have gotten shot at. "Buir said damage counts as damage!"
Leia snarled, squeezing the trigger on her '35 as fast as she could. The weight of the blaster and the sticky trigger was throwing her aim off just enough that her shots weren't quite effective as they could have been. Jesse would have been disappointed in her, Leia thought as she tried to compensate. "You both are di'kuts ! How are we getting out of here!?"
"If you'd shut up, you'd notice that we're going up." Paz growled, leveled a Verpine shatter rifle at an upcoming window and fired. He kept turning, his finger pulling and slipped back into another hollow corner. "Twenty and ten, Djarin."
"There's no stairs that way!" She screeched, tagging several more stormies in the weak spots of their armour.
Two fingers lifted off the stock and counted down, Paz silently communicated with his vod with the tilt of his head. Din grabbed her around the wrist at Paz's command. Both of them sprung into motion and darted across the open hallway, dodging incoming fire and crashed through the window at full speed. Din put his pistol away, free hand pressing something on his opposite gauntlet. Leia knew he was giving off that shit eating grin he always had right before he leapt. She had seen it enough times to read it in every line of his body as they moved.
Paz fired off several more shots with the Verpine , before he too was in motion. Longer legs easily overtook the other pair and soon enough Paz was leading them within a few motions.
"You Di'kuts! We're on the fifth floooooo-aaaaaaaah!" Leia shrieked out in alarm and surprise, being hauled through the broken window right alongside Din. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear as Din snorted, grabbed her around the waist and jumped.
Paz was slightly in the front and took the brunt of the shards shattering. Leia screeched in alarm and surprise as they fell downwards. Her eyes widened, her hand gripped the clunky blaster, twisting around to hold onto Din. Her free hand wove and twisted in between the flak vest and his armour, her legs wrapped themselves around his waist and she kept screaming.
Before the three could even hit the ground, their bodies yanked upwards with force.
"Jetpacks! Oya ! You were actually smart for once!" Leia hollered, scrambling to hold onto her ride. Her eyes slowly opened in delight before she was once again focused on the troopers firing at them from the ground and the window.
"Would you stop moving!?" Din exasperated at her, struggling to keep hold of Leia and not fall out of the sky at her shifting weight.
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
Cody was going to have a nightmare. There were no other words to explain the sheer destruction of that small teenager. It all but confirmed his theory that she was most definitely Torrent. No one else would have the beskar balls to shoot up the garrison on their way out and break through a fifth story window and then jump out of it. He looked at his men scattered throughout and had to sigh mentally.
None of them were even kitted out properly. If this had been a scramble exercise, the whole garrison would have been running laps fully kitted until they dropped.
He feels no shame for what he is about to do next. None at all. Even his Shebse vode would have done it, he told himself in hindsight.
Cody discreetly tapped his left bracer twice, whispered under his breath, " Kot."
Except for Barses. Cody eyed his 2IC, noting her proper appearance. Not a hair was out of place, her gun was fully holstered and her seams were all exact and in place. Even her boots were highly polished.
"Orders sir?" She asked. Oh how he loved that woman and her ability to be on top of everything at any given moment!
"Shoot them down if possible." Cody drily said, his DE-10 slipped easily into place on his hip. "If not, track their course and get me a squad to give chase." Cody glanced at the contingent of storm troopers behind Barses.
He couldn't help the grimace on his face. Stormies just didn't have the quality of Troopers. How he missed working with men who had excellence bred into their very bones.
"Of course sir."
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
Cody knew that she was Rex'ika's. There was no possible way that the skinny womp rat wasn't, not with her screaming oritsir throughout half the time she was in his garrison. But this. This just proved it. The Jetpacks the three Shebse verd'ikas used may have been military grade, but they were still not quite Torrent Company grade. Something that was a small blessing in and of itself. That gave the commander ample time to track them down to a small forgotten dingy space dock and an equally beaten up falling apart freighter.
Knowing how one's karking nerd of a vod thought was also a point in his favor , Cody mussed.
The girl hadn't even bothered to be on the ship as Cody strode into the hanger. She was yards away, rooted in her tracks while her companion made it to safety.
"Lei'ka!"
The girl froze like a moormouse, her body straightened up proudly. Her eyes, brown like well made caf with the just right amount of sweetener in it, found his unexpectedly. Like she knew where to look to pinpoint them underneath the helmet. It was a silent contest of wills as she holstered her pistol. Like she was daring him to shoot her.
"Come on Lei'ka!" A young male voice yelled, feet pounded up the ramp at the sight of white armour appearing.
The girl, no… Her name was Lei'ka, and didn't move, arms by her side in a perfect parade rest. Her eyes moved, watching the stormtroopers file in the hanger and fan out around her in a half circle. On her lips a silent twist, knowing a joke that Cody was not a part of.
"Halt!" Cody called aiming his blaster at the figure. Behind her the ship's engines fired up, warmed enough to begin lift off.
And yet she still did not move.
Cody didn't know whether he should have pity for his vod'ika for being stuck raising such a stubborn shebse or laugh in joy. The ade had way too much kar'ta and not enough mirshe .
It was a silent dare of wills, one Cody could not tell the end off. Finally before the ramp was higher than ten feet off the ground, she vaulted into motion, ran across the hanger ground and leapt.
Somehow, impossibly she caught the very edge of the metal, hauling herself upwards with the sheer force of her arms and moved upwards to safety. Before she completely vanished into safety, the girl paused and looked over her shoulder. One hand held a ramp piston and her eyes cataloged the incoming troops.
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
Leia spun around, held the ramp piston and watched the incoming troops. Her free hand flipped upwards to frame her face. Two fingers: wrist tilted just so the way Jesse taught her to so it wasn't a sir yes sir but and gave the most shit eating grin she managed to give as she caught the commander's visor.
It was a perfect data pad example of a Kark you salute.
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
Barses showed up right at Cody's shoulder, where she always was right before Cody needed her. "Orders sir?"
"Let them go, 2LT." Cody drily said, body easing out of battle ready. "If anyone has the guts to do what that kid had done and gotten away with it, I think they earned the right to make it off planet, don't you?"
"Of course sir." Barses reply was textbook perfect as always, but Cody knew that she was silently questioning him. Maybe if he got her a plaque for her desk, she might have been appeased. "Exactly how are the AA reports going to read for this sir?"
No, he definitely was getting her a mug to go with that plaque. Maybe something that said 'Barses; Essential Imperial Security Resource' ?
"There won't be a report in the official files, Barses. Just the one to the General." Cody resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck at her look.
"Of course sir. And may I ask permission to ask why, sir?"
Oh yeah, he was gonna get her a shiny brass one, maybe add some shivs to her desk for this.
"Kid belongs to the Captain." Cody responded, silently wincing.
"Of course she is. And wouldn't that information have been of better use if I had known that earlier, sir?"
No, no… Cody was definitely making that plaque beskar and getting her her favorite caf for the next month?
"Maybe, didn't really know that until now, 2IC."
"Of course not sir." Barses spun on her heel after performing a perfect sir yes sir salute that he knew was hiding a hidden sass in it and headed back for the garrison.
Two months?
He was gonna get her enough caf for two months at the very least .
Cody was left to watch the exhaust of the freighter in the sky. Now he just had to tell the General that they finally found evidence of Rex'ikas activity and being alive. Ooh Kriff that report won't be an easy one .
Cody turned away, headed back to his destroyed garrison and his After Action reports and drafts to make sure his men were going to be adaptable to new training. If a single teenage wet nexu kit had done that to his garrison, his men needed some severe training changed around base.
Aruetii: outsider
Di'kuts: idiots. Also what Leia collectively calls the boys.
Oya!: hoorah! Positive and triumphant
Kot: prayer circle.
Shebse vode: asshole brothers
Oritsir: curse/bellow
Verd'ikas: little soldiers.
Vod'ika: little brother
Shebse: ass
Ade: child
Kar'ta: heart
Mirshe: brain