“I need to speak with Admiral Raddus,” she said to the private. The Mon Calamari warmaster would know what to do about this.
How could they respond? How many ships did they have ready? How fast could they get there?
Most important of all, was it worth the risk?
The private shook his head. “He’s returned to his ship. He’s gone to fight!”
Draven and Merrick glanced at Mon Mothma then, and she had to do her best to suppress a smile. She was pleased that Jyn and Cassian had gone to Scarif to complete the mission the high command didn’t have the stomach to back. Now Raddus might also make sure they got the help they deserved.
The two generals scrambled off to see what they could do about it, but Mothma knew they were already too late. There would still be ships hurrying to catch up with Raddus in orbit, but none of them would refuse the admiral’s orders to join him in jumping to Scarif.
As Mon Mothma strolled through the hangar and watched the various ships prepare to leave, she spotted a pair of droids rushing through. She’d seen them with Bail Organa in the past, but she believed they were with Captain Raymus Antilles now.
The golden protocol droid—C-3PO, she thought—chased after a blue-and-silver astromech, calling after him as he went. “Scarif?” the droid said. “They’re going to Scarif? Why does nobody ever tell me anything, Artoo?”
Sometimes Mon Mothma wanted to ask the exact same thing. Right now, though, she felt grateful that someone had found the guts to do what needed to be done, without letting her know anything about it.
BODHI HATED explosions. As a cargo pilot, he knew that when things started blowing up, everything had gone wrong.
Still, he felt pleased to hear the bombs Melshi and the others had set. They didn’t even need to hurt anyone, although Bodhi didn’t think the rebels would mind if they did. The explosions just needed to grab Imperial attention and keep it focused outside of the Citadel for as long as possible. That was the kind of chaos Cassian and Jyn needed if they were going to get into the Citadel, much less all the way down to the data vault.
Bodhi watched through the cargo shuttle’s viewport and saw blaster fire lighting up the air. One of the rebels had brought along a rocket launcher, too, and they’d fired it into the stormtroopers, wreaking even more chaos.
An officer in the Citadel’s central command screamed out orders over their comm system, and people on the pads—either officers or stormtroopers—answered. She couldn’t make sense of all of it, but enough of it came through loud and clear.
“Pad Twelve! Close it down!”
“Taking fire!”
“Coming on your flank!”
“Pad Twelve!”
“Pad Fourteen requesting assistance!”
“I need numbers!”
“Unknown! Unknown!”
“Pad Fourteen, what’s going on down there? Status, please!”
“We have rebels everywhere!”
“All pads report in immediately!”
To Bodhi, that sounded like an invitation to help sow chaos. He activated his ship’s radio and started shouting into it. “Pad Two! This is Pad Two! We count forty rebel soldiers running west off Pad Two!”
Of course, Bodhi was actually on pad nine, and there was nothing of the sort happening on Pad Two. He’d watched the rebels run into the jungle, and he’d done his best to track them from there. They might have set off an explosion at Pad Two, but none of them was still there. If the stormtroopers raced over there to help out, they’d find no rebels to attack.
Anything he could do to waste the Empire’s time.
Bodhi handed the ship’s microphone to Corporal Tonc, one of the rebels who’d stayed behind in the cargo shuttle.
“Tell them you’re pinned down by rebels on Pad Five.”
Tonc smiled at the order and set straight to it. “This is Pad Five! We’re being overrun!”
The commander in the Citadel responded as best he could. “Pad Twelve! Pad Ten! Pad Eight! Please confirm! Confirm and report! Get reinforcements down to pad five immediately!”
Bodhi had to smile at that. To think, they could destroy the Empire’s response to their attack with just a few well-placed words.
He worried, though, about what would happen when the Empire turned its blasters toward him.
CHIRRUT HAD not ever expected to find himself on another planet, fighting to help destroy the deadliest weapon in the galaxy. But after the Death Star blew his hometown—Jedha City—to pieces, he didn’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to go.
He’d lost almost everything in that attack: his friends, his family—even the Holy City itself. The only thing he had left was his faith in the Force and his best friend, Baze.
That was what had taken him to Scarif. It would have been easy for him to plead off after Cassian and Jyn had taken him to Yavin 4. He was blind, after all, and most people expected less of him because of that. He could have asked to be led away from all this, and no one would have questioned his choice.
He would have known, though, and so would Baze. Just because he couldn’t see didn’t mean he couldn’t be useful in the fight against the Empire. And if there was any chance at all that he could help stop the Empire from using the Death Star to utterly conquer the entire galaxy, how could he walk away from that?
He had the echo-box transmitter on his belt; that helped him figure out where he was in the world. Plus he had Baze. And most important, he still had his faith in the Force.
So he’d gone with Baze and the rebel commandos and helped them place their bombs on the various landing pads situated around the Citadel. Then, after Sergeant Melshi had detonated them, Chirrut had also joined the fight.
For a while, it seemed like the rebels had the upper hand. They had hidden themselves well, and the stormtroopers were having a hard time finding them. The stormtroopers also had only blaster rifles to defend themselves with, and the rebels could pick them off from cover without much fear.
But then Chirrut heard something he’d never heard before. It thrummed like a herd of engines, but it also lurched forward with a gigantic gait, like that of a beast several stories tall. The others couldn’t see what it was through all the smoke the bombs had thrown up, but such things didn’t distract Chirrut. They couldn’t.
He heard them coming, whatever they were, and he knew what he had to do. “Baze!” he shouted. “Baze!”
He heard his old friend hesitate. Baze stopped firing his weapon for a moment, the souped-up blaster with the ammo tank he carried on his back. He froze there and said, “What?”
While Baze listened for what Chirrut had already heard, Chirrut turned and bolted away from the things coming toward them. As he did, he shouted, “Run. Run!”
The gigantic walking machines emerged from the smoke then, like ancient monsters shambling forth from their lairs. Chirrut heard someone call them by name: AT-ACTs.
Whatever they were called, the massive machines opened fire on the rebels. Blaster fire erupted all around Chirrut as he raced for cover with Baze right behind him. Explosions seemed to surround them, but they weren’t about to give up.
Chirrut knew the real battle was just starting.
WITH ALL the chaos going on outside the Citadel, it wasn’t hard for Jyn, Cassian, and K-2SO to find their way to the data vault. All the stormtroopers had been ordered outside to deal with the rebel assault, leaving only a skeleton crew of officers to staff the place.
When they reached the data vault, only a single officer stood between them and their target. He looked up at them curiously, surprised to find people trying to access the data vault when they probably should have been trying to help repel the attack.
“Can I help you?” he said.
“That won’t be necessary,” K-2SO said.
The droid stepped forward and clocked the officer on top of the
head with a steely hand. The man collapsed without another word.
K-2SO set to work at the console where the Imperial officer had been standing. According to what he had downloaded from the local security droid, getting into the data vault required at least two people. One person had to work the console while someone else walked into the actual data vault.
He sent Cassian and Jyn ahead of him while he took control of the console. “Take him with you,” he said. “You’ll need his handprint to open the inner door to the vault.”
Cassian and Jyn grabbed the officer, each taking him under an armpit, and dragged him through the outer door to the vault, which stood open. At the other end of a short tube, they came to the hand scanner K-2SO had described to them, and they put the officer’s palm on it.
The door didn’t budge.
“It’s not working!” Cassian shouted.
K-2SO knew what the problem was without even looking. “Right hand.”
Cassian grabbed the officer’s other hand and slapped it on the scanner. A moment later, the inner vault door opened.
THE REBEL FLEET—such as it was—slipped out of hyperspace high above Scarif. The first wave included starships of all kinds and sizes: X-wings, Y-wings, U-wings, and even Admiral Raddus’s cruiser, the Profundity. More slipped in behind them every moment.
General Merrick liked to lead from the front, entering the battle in his own X-wing. The rebel fleet was far too small for someone of his skills to sit in a capital ship, sheltered from the heart of the fight. He had to be right in the mix.
“This is Blue Leader,” he said as he got his bearings. Hyperspace always made him a little disoriented. “All squadron leaders report in.”
Gold Leader, Red Leader, and Green Leader all squawked back at him, confirming they’d made it to their proper destination. Merrick allowed himself a thin smile of relief. So far, at least, the plan had gone flawlessly. Of course, the shooting hadn’t started yet.
The rest of the plan involved getting inside the shield around Scarif before the Empire had the chance to seal the planet off from them. Otherwise, getting through the shield would be next to impossible, especially with a pair of Imperial Star Destroyers standing guard over it. They had to move fast.
A familiar gravelly voice came over the comm. “This is Admiral Raddus. Red and Gold Squadrons, engage those two Star Destroyers. Blue Squadron, get to the surface before they close that gate!”
“Copy you, Admiral.” Just as they’d discussed. Merrick was already heading toward the gate. “Blue Squadron, on me!” he barked.
One by one, the members of Blue Squadron checked in, confirming they were ready and understood their orders. “Copy, Blue Leader!”
Even as they raced for the gate, though, Merrick could see the Imperials had spotted them. The edges of the gate had already started to come together, and they would have to hustle if they wanted to make it through.
Blue Four and Six had lagged behind a bit, but they were determined to slip through the closing gate. “Come on, come on, come on, come on!” Blue Six said, shouting at their engines as they barreled toward the planet and the nearly invisible shield.
Blue Four could see, though, that they weren’t going to make it. He hauled back on his stick to peel away from the shield just in time, and he shouted for Blue Six to do the same. “Pull up!”
Merrick didn’t know if Blue Six had kept his X-wing at top speed the entire time or not. Would another second of acceleration have made a difference? They would never know.
Blue Six smashed into the shield, which had fully closed. The X-wing exploded in a bright ball of fire.
The rest of Blue Squadron had gotten through. They were trapped inside the shield, along with the rebel commandos who were already on the ground—the people they’d gone to help in their desperate attempt to grab the Death Star’s plans.
General Merrick gritted his teeth and set to leading his squadron in doing its job. Blue Squadron had made its choice about where it would stand that day, and it was time to face its doom.
JYN AND CASSIAN hauled the unconscious Imperial officer back out of the tube that led to the data vault. With the inner door open, thanks to the use of his hand, he would only be in the way.
As they deposited the man on the floor, K-2SO looked up at them. He was plugged into the console and was supposed to be monitoring Imperial communications to see if anyone was coming their way. When he started to speak, Jyn expected nothing but bad news from him.
Instead he said, “The rebel fleet has arrived.”
That stunned Jyn and Cassian both. “What?” she said, confused.
When they’d left Yavin 4, she’d been sure no one else would come after them—unless it might be to arrest them. If the rebel fleet had shown up, though, it hadn’t come just to offer moral support. It was joining the fight!
But K-2SO had more to tell them, and little of it was good. “There’s fighting on the beach. They’ve locked down the base. They’ve closed the shield gate.”
If Jyn’s heart had soared a moment before, it now came crashing down. “What does that mean?” She looked to Cassian. “We’re trapped?”
He nodded at her.
“We have to tell them we’re down here!” she said to K-2SO. “We’re close!”
“We haven’t much time,” K-2SO said. “We could transmit the plans to the rebel fleet. We’d have to get a signal out to tell them it’s coming. It’s the size of the data files. That’s the problem. They’ll never get through. Someone has to take that shield gate down.”
Cassian pulled out his comm and began talking into it. “Bodhi! Bodhi, can you hear me?”
No answer.
“Tell me you’re out there! Bodhi!”
The cargo pilot’s voice came back. He sounded a little shaken. “I’m here. We’re standing by. They’ve started fighting. The base is on lockdown!”
“I know,” Cassian said. “Listen to me. The rebel fleet is up there. You’ve got to tell them they’ve gotta blow a hole in the shield gate so we can transmit the plans—”
“I can’t,” Bodhi complained. “I’m not tied into the comm tower. We’re not tied in—”
Cassian didn’t want to hear it. “Find a way!” Then he turned to K-2SO. “Cover our backs.”
As Cassian headed for the tube, Jyn hesitated.
She took the blaster from the unconscious Imperial officer and offered it to K-2SO. “You’ll need this,” she said.
The droid just looked at it for a moment, unsure of what to do. She held the blaster up in front of him. “You wanted one, right?”
K-2SO reached out and took the blaster. He stared at it in his hands. “Your behavior, Jyn Erso, is continually unexpected.”
That brought a smile to her face.
Cassian had already made it into the tube that led into the vault. He turned back and called for her. “Jyn, come on.”
She turned to follow him, hoping she wouldn’t regret what she’d just done.
BODHI STARED at the comm system for a moment, unsure what to do. Outside, he saw AT-ACTs heading for the rebel commandos, and he froze. What could he do to prevent those walking tanks from killing them all?
Baze stood up then, and he had a rocket launcher hoisted over his shoulder. He aimed it at the nearest AT-ACT and pulled the trigger. A rocket blasted out of the launcher and smashed right into the front of the machine, catching it on the side of the cockpit like a boxer’s right cross.
For a moment, Bodhi thought that might do the trick and bring the walker down. The gigantic machine just shook off the attack, though, and kept going.
Baze, Chirrut, and anyone else standing near them was doomed, Bodhi knew. They couldn’t outrun a machine like that, and they had no way to stop it.
Another missile streamed out of the sky just then and exploded against the side of the AT-ACT. The blast sho
ok the machine, and smoke began pouring from it.
Bodhi scanned the sky to see where the help had come from, and he spotted a fleet of X-wings zooming overhead. The rebels on the beach sent up a cheer, and Bodhi joined them.
Hope surging in him, Bodhi slid down from the cockpit and into the shuttle’s cabin. Corporal Tonc was right behind him.
“All right,” he said to the others. “Listen up. We’re going to have to go out there.”
They stared at him. It was literally a war zone outside, and no one wanted to leave the relative safety of the cargo shuttle. Bodhi didn’t wait for them though. He began gathering up the gear he needed.
“What’re you doing?” Tonc asked.
“They closed the shield gate,” Bodhi said. “We’re stuck here. But the rebel fleet are pulling in. We just have to get a signal strong enough to get through to them and let them know we’re trapped down here.
“For that we need to connect to the communications tower. Now, I can patch us in over here, the landing pad, but you have to get on the radio. Get one of the guys out there to find a master switch. Get them to activate the connection between us and that comms tower, okay?”
Tonc glanced at the others. He seemed to be the one selected for the job by default.
“Then go!” Bodhi shouted at him.
Tonc went.
JYN FOLLOWED Cassian through the tube and into the data vault proper. It was a circular tower—towers, really—of tapes sealed off behind a large panel of glass. The towers seemed to stretch to a dizzying height and depth from where they stood. They contained a boggling amount of information gathered from all across the Empire.
Jyn’s heart leaped into her throat. How would they locate the tape they wanted?
K-2SO spoke to them over the vault’s intercom system. “Schematics bank. Data tower two.”
Cassian gaped up at the tower in question. “How do I find that?”
Rogue One Junior Novel Page 11
