A Hitch in the Plan

Sturas

The four transports rumbled slowly alongside the small caravan as the sounds of battle came through, muffled by the thick transport walls. Every so often the transport would shake or shudder and she would see Gasus clench up. He was a Shadow Trooper, he wasn't used to the shakiness of it all. Sturas knew it all too well. Top of her class in the Imperial Academy, on track to be one of the best TIE pilots before an injury took her out of the program and landed her as a standard rank-and-file soldier. "Not suicidal enough for the Suicide Sleds" her friends would joke, and she would laugh. She wished they were still here to laugh with her.

The rocking of the cabin put Sturas at ease as she looked out at the desert landscape. There was a deep rumble and the shifting of the transport, Gasus clenched up again as he steered the transport.

"Transport got taken out, the line had to move to get around the wreckage."

She nodded in understanding. She knew Gasus was talking mostly to calm his nerves and she wasn't going to say anything to him. She knew she was just as nervous as him in her own way. If the Empire won, slim as that chance was, then they were in big trouble. They were, after all, deserters. She wasn't even sure they'd be welcome in a world where the Empire lost. For all Sturas knew they were going to parade every Trooper down to maintenance men through the streets of Coruscant before executing them all for war crimes, and she didn't think she could honestly blame them.

Something zipped by the front of the transport and Gasus gripped the controls tighter.

"Time to make our move?" She was already on her way to the turret.

Gasus nodded and laughed weakly. "Here goes nothing I guess."

Serina

It had been 5 minutes since Serina had told everyone to break off and things seemed to be going well so far, almost too well. She called everyone on their comms to make sure nothing was too off.

"Hadar here, we're all good here, no need to worry about us."

"Gasus and Sturas here, we got nothing but guns and ammo back here."

"This is Sam from transport 3, we're here as well."

Nothing from transport 4.

Serina tried multiple times with no response, but the transport was still following the layout of the plan.

"Does anyone have any info on transport 4? Can someone please help them out?"

Sam chimed in on the comms and said he would go out to check. She rushed into position behind the back door of transport 4 as Sam got out from the top of his transport and jumped over. He knocked on the roof a few times, then gave Serina a look of confusion and shrugged.

"Open up the top and let's see what the big deal is, this better not be a joke, because I sure ain't laughing."

Sam took off his helmet, opened the hatch, and his face went as white as his polished armor. The back door of the transport blew open, disorienting Serina as the turret whipped around and fired at Transport 3

Aimee

The explosion rocked the transport and Hadar jerked the wheel off to the side. Everyone looked out the side at the burning wreck. People were panicking, Hadar was screaming into the comms and the others all looked worriedly at each other. Aimee breathed in and out sharply as she took the comms from Hadar.

"Gasus, we're too far in front to see who this transport is aiming at, who's in their sights?"

Aimee heard scrambling before Gasus picked up "It's us. They're aiming at us, I'm trying to shake them but they're locked. Serin,a fell off her bike but they've got some sort of cannon in the back, we can't go back to get her either."

That's all she needed to hear. Whatever had happened the most important thing to her just became saving her best friend.

"Hadar, get us alongside their transport, we need to draw their fire away from the gun transport."

"And forcing them to fire at us instead?"

"Just trust me, I know you don't know me, but I have a plan here."

Hadar threw up his hands and smiled.

"Dying with a plan is better than dying with no plan."