Star Wars: Rebel Rising

by Revis, Beth

  Saw stood and started pacing down the gauntlet of droid bodies. He punched one, sending it swinging from its noose, the clanking of metal against metal reverberating across the island. “That’s something neither side’s figured out yet,” he told the ground. “All you need is one good, solid tragedy, and the people will flock. Nothing unites people like that. If Idryssa wants to really rally people behind her, she needs to do it while standing on some graves.”

  There was a gleam in Saw’s eyes, a spark that terrified Jyn.

  And it excited her.

  Saw turned to Jyn and swooped toward her in long strides. He wrapped his big hands around hers, pressing her fingers against the truncheons she still held. “That’s what Steela taught me,” he said. “One fighter with a sharp stick”—he held Jyn’s hand up, brandishing a truncheon—“one fighter with a sharp stick and nothing left to lose can take the day. You just have to make sure that fighter believes. ”

  Seeing Idryssa must have spurred Saw into reuniting with some of his old compatriots. Xosad and his small crew came first, and then Reece arrived. This time, he wasn’t alone; he had a group of three other humans and a Lasat who didn’t talk much. They looked at Reece as if he was their leader, and Jyn had a hard time puzzling that out. He was not the kind of person she would have fought for.

  The outpost was starting to feel more crowded than usual, and Jyn in particular felt outnumbered. Reece’s men were young and immature, reckless and destructive. When Jyn was target practicing with her A180 modified blaster, Reece’s crew picked up their own blasters and joined her. But they were not concerned with firing one shot and moving on to the next target; they massacred the dead droid bodies hung up on the rafters of the broken comm tower, laughing wildly as the metal burned.

  “When are they leaving?” Jyn asked Saw in a low voice on the third day after they’d invaded her home.

  Saw laughed. “I know. They’re insufferable. But they can be handy,” he added in a louder voice.

  “Really?” Jyn said, doubt dripping from the word.

  “Really.”

  Jyn stared at Reece, evaluating him. He was about a decade older than her, but he lacked any discipline. He was broader, sure, with larger muscles, but she doubted he had ever formally trained.

  “Like what you see?” Reece said, strutting over to Jyn.

  “Not really,” she said coolly.

  “Keep a leash on your little girl,” Reece told Saw. “She needs to have more respect.”

  Jyn’s blood boiled, but Saw raised his hand. “Jyn’s not a little girl, and if you have a problem with her, take it outside.”

  Reece laughed. “Yeah, okay,” he said sarcastically at the same time Jyn snapped, “I’m fine with that.”

  Reece raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Come on,” she said, heading to the door.

  Reece’s men whooped at him so loudly that he had no choice but to follow. Saw lumbered behind them. Jyn went to the cleared area on the island where she and Saw practiced sparring daily and waited for Reece to face her.

  “Cause no lasting damage and keep it clean,” Saw said in a somewhat bored voice. “This is a spar; you’re not fighting the Emperor here.”

  “I’ll be gentle,” Reece said, sneering at Jyn.

  “I was talking to Jyn,” Saw replied, stepping back.

  Reece squared off in front of her. He had too much bravado; he was far too aware of the group of men circling them. Jyn kept her gaze on his face, knowing his tell would show there. She saw the instant his eyes changed from mocking to serious, and she had her arms raised in a block before he’d even finished making a fist. She knocked his arm aside with one of hers, driving a fist into his solar plexus with enough force to wind him.

  Reece stumbled back, fury turning his pale face red as his men howled with laughter. Jyn kept light on her feet, careful.

  She almost always sparred with Saw, and Saw kept his temper in check, especially with her. But Reece was not Saw. He boiled with anger at being mocked, and his next attack was as random and ferocious as an enraged animal. Jyn hadn’t been ready for it, and she went down, slamming into the dirt.

  She leapt up before Reece had a chance to turn around in triumph, scooting back and lowering her center as she watched him with narrowed eyes.

  “You should have stayed down, little girl,” Reece growled.

  Jyn didn’t bother answering. Words didn’t hurt. Fists did. Tired of the defensive, Jyn struck first, feinting a punch, then leaning back into a kick that connected with Reece’s shoulder. He took the force of it in stride, barely stumbling back, and Jyn kicked out again, aiming higher. He knocked aside her leg this time, throwing her off balance, and pushed against her, hard, so she thudded back to the ground. This time, he didn’t assume she was out; he dropped his knees on her chest, painfully, smiling as the air whooshed out of her.

  Her arms were still free, but Reece was positioned on top of her in such a way that she couldn’t easily throw him off or gain any leverage. He smirked…and then his eyes narrowed. He leaned down so close to Jyn’s face that for one horrifying moment she thought he was going to kiss her—but instead he yanked at the leather cord around her neck, pulling up her kyber crystal necklace.

  “You’ve got us chasing the Empire halfway across the galaxy looking for these things,” he yelled at Saw, “and your little girl has one around her neck? What are you playing at?” He flicked the kyber in Jyn’s face and laughed when she flinched.

  Jyn’s lips moved. Reece was so focused on them that he didn’t notice the way her fingers wrapped around a large stone on the ground.

  “What was that, little girl?” Reece asked, leaning closer.

  “I said,” Jyn replied in a quiet voice, “that was my mother’s.” And with Reece’s head so close to her own, she slammed the rock into the side of his skull. He fell off her, dazed, and Jyn stood, kicking him viciously in the stomach.

  Reece rolled away, groaning, then stood.

  Jyn let the rock fall from her hands, not breaking eye contact with him.

  “That’s—” Reece started.

  “Cheating?” Jyn said. “I wasn’t aware there were rules.”

  She headed back to the outpost as Reece’s men swarmed him. When she passed Saw, he said in a low voice that only she could hear, “Nice pointed stick.”

  Jyn stayed in her room until Reece and his crew left that evening.

  Saw knocked on her door to let her know he was gone. When Jyn let him inside, she noticed that he had a dark greenish-brown cloth in his hand.

  “What’s that for?” Jyn asked.

  “You.” Saw draped the cloth around Jyn’s neck. “I want you to wear this from now on.”

  She tugged at the durable carbon-cotton scarf. “Why?”

  Saw’s gaze dropped. “I know you won’t take off that necklace. I know what it means to you. But Jyn”—he finally met her gaze—“you can’t let anyone else see it. Galen may have worked with kyber crystals, but they’re rare. And the fact that you have one, and that I’ve made it known I’m asking about them…” He ran a hand over his smooth head. “It’s not safe. We can’t let others find out who you are. Who your father is.”

  “Reece works for you,” Jyn said in a soft voice.

  “Reece works for payment,” Saw said. “And there are people who would pay him far more than I could if he knew you were Galen Erso’s daughter.”

  Jyn tugged the scarf down, covering her neck and chest. She felt inexplicably exposed.

  “He saw it,” she said. “He knew it was a kyber.” I told him it was a gift from my mother, she thought but didn’t say. She didn’t want Saw to know how foolish she’d been by just handing Reece another piece of the puzzle of who she was.

  “And he knows that I’ve been very interested in Galen’s work, and figuring out just what it is he’s making for the Empire,” Saw conceded. “But Reece is also thickheaded, and I doubt he’s going to think about today beyond just how well you beat him. Sti
ll,” he added, readjusting Jyn’s new scarf, “just in case.”

  She pressed the cloth to her chest. “Just in case.”

  “Xosad and his men are still here. We’re setting up our next mission.” He spoke with an expectant tone that Jyn found curious. “Want to join in?” he asked, grinning.

  Her eyes rounded. Saw had never, not once, allowed her to join him on a mission. He had ignored her pleading, eventually forbidding her from even asking anymore.

  “If I had known you’d let me join you on missions as soon as I beat up a boy, I’d have done it a long time ago,” she said.

  “It wasn’t that,” Saw said. “I already knew you were strong enough.”

  He turned to her door. “Then what?” Jyn asked, bouncing on her heels. “What changed your mind?”

  When he looked back at her, there was sadness in his eyes that belied his lingering smile. But he didn’t answer her.

  Xosad and his crew were finishing dinner by the time Saw led Jyn into the room. She grabbed a plate for herself before everything was cleared away and ate quickly as the men started discussing the upcoming mission. The Togruta, Jari, slipped Jyn the last puff cake as Saw poured out the lum for the others.

  “Did you hear about the T-7 ion disrupter rifles?” Xosad asked.

  Saw shook his head. “Nasty business. Wish we could get our hands on some.”

  “The Empire’s stockpiling. Have you heard from Idryssa?” Xosad meant to slip the last question in casually, but Jyn caught the sharp edge to it. The different people Saw worked with splintered off in ways she couldn’t always trace.

  “She’s working with some other group,” Saw said.

  Xosad snorted disapprovingly, then got up and started clearing the dishes from the table.

  “There’s been a lot of movements around the mines. Mostly doonium and dolovite,” Saw added.

  Xosad’s eyes shot to Jyn, then moved quickly away. “And kyber crystals.” He had been there, along with his men, when Jyn had fought Reece.

  Saw didn’t miss the dig. “Leave my daughter alone,” Saw said. There was a warning in his voice.

  Xosad glanced back at Saw as he set the plates by the sink. Huge dark Saw who looked nothing like small pale Jyn. “No, she’s not your daughter,” he said genially. “And it seems strange you’ve got a girl here on Wrea with a kyber crystal. They’re kind of rare, Saw,” he added sarcastically.

  Jyn adjusted her scarf.

  “Xosad,” Saw growled.

  “I was there, too, Saw, at the Wanton Wellspring.” Xosad narrowed his eyes at Jyn. “Has was my friend, too.”

  “Has talks too much.”

  “So are you who I think you are, little girl?” Xosad asked quietly, leaning so close that his lekku brushed Jyn’s knees. She fought the urge to flinch away. “Because if you are, Saw’s hidden a pile of credits on this miserable little planet.”

  “I told you,” Saw said, right behind Xosad. “She. Is. My. Daughter. ” He grabbed Xosad by the shoulder and yanked him around. His eyes were so narrowed that the scarred one had almost disappeared behind his squint. “Understand?” he growled.

  Xosad threw up his slender arms. “Perfectly. You’re a lovely family,” he added.

  “Yes, we are,” Jyn said, kicking the back of Xosad’s right knee and making him fall to the ground.

  Saw barked a laugh, and despite being knocked down, even Xosad—and his crew—seemed amused by Jyn’s little rebellion.

  “You don’t have to worry about him,” Jari whispered to Jyn. He smiled at her pleasantly, but Jyn wasn’t so sure of that.

  “So what’s the mission?” Jyn asked loudly, hoping to distract everyone from the tension surrounding her true identity.

  Xosad got one of his other crew members, a Twi’lek named Bilder, to lay out the plans. “The Empire has sent a scouting mission to some remote planets in the Western Reaches. They’re using a civilian ship,” he said, and the holodisk showed a CCR -class pinnace. “The Empire has kept all of this very off the records, which of course means it’s something they don’t want us to notice.”

  “We did notice, though,” Xosad said, grinning.

  “It’s a smaller ship, so the plan is simple enough. We intercept, board, and take the information they’re hiding.” Bilder pointed to the ship’s connection point. “Our ship is compatible to dock with it, and we’ll pose as an undercover Imperial ship delivering additional supplies.”

  “That’s where you come in, Jyn,” Saw said. “Think you can forge us what we’ll need to convince them to let us dock?”

  Jyn cocked her head. “Shouldn’t be too hard,” she said. “An Imperial manifest and clearance code, yeah?”

  Bilder nodded. “With an official document of greeting, if we need it.”

  “I can do that.” Jyn felt pride swell within her. She could do that, and easily. She used code replicators often, stockpiling credentials for Saw and his contacts. This would require a little more finesse, but she knew she could handle the challenge.

  “Are we meeting up with anyone else?” Jyn asked.

  Saw shook his head. “Small operation. If the Empire sees us coming, the ship’ll ghost, or it’ll get more reinforcements. Surprise is going to be our best asset. Xosad says there’s no more than five people aboard the pinnace—two of whom are surveyors and scientists.”

  Jyn swallowed, hard. Surveyors and scientists. Just like her parents.

  “Reece and his men are exploring a different lead, in the Outer Rim,” Saw added. Jyn had to admit that even though Reece was a jerk, he was still useful. “There’s a factory that seems to be receiving a lot of Imperial shipments. There’s a chance these two missions are connected. Hopefully, we can get some good information.” He shot Xosad a look, and the Twi’lek nodded solemnly.

  “Can we be ready in twenty?” Bilder asked. Jyn’s stomach lurched; this was happening so quickly. But she didn’t want to be the weak link on the crew.

  As Xosad and his men went back to their ship to prepare, Jyn went to her room. She made sure the scarf Saw had given her covered her chest and the necklace, then she added a knife to her boot, strapped her old blaster to the holster around her right thigh, and secured the truncheons on her back. Her heart raced. She hadn’t left Wrea since Saw had taken her there years before, and her excitement to be included was wrapped up in her readiness to go into space again.

  Saw laughed when she walked out of her room. “You’re forging codes, not going into battle.”

  Jyn’s eager expression fell, and she turned back to her room. Saw dropped a heavy hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “Better to be prepared,” he said in a low, serious voice.

  “Let’s go,” Xosad called from the outpost door. They followed the Twi’lek out to his ship. Saw had Jyn stay in a jump seat in the back with the crew while he went into the cockpit with Xosad. Jyn didn’t like the sensation of sitting in the back with no view outside, the safety harness of the jump seat cutting into her breastbone and shoulders as she lurched around. They couldn’t make the jump into hyperspace without clearing Smuggler’s Run, and Xosad wasn’t a smooth pilot as he navigated the asteroid belt. The shields had to deflect more than one stray rock. Jyn wasn’t ready for the jump when it finally came. Her stomach lurched and she cursed under her breath.

  Jari shot her a sympathetic look.

  “You can take that off now,” Bilder said, indicating the safety harness. “Even Xosad can’t mess up hyperspace travel.”

  “Don’t jinx us,” Jari grumbled.

  Jyn undid the safety harness and slid out of the jump seat. Nothing about Xosad’s ship seemed comfortable or friendly. Even the flooring, made of rough metal grating, bit into the soles of her boots.

  Saw and Xosad emerged from the cockpit, and everyone moved to the table screwed into the floor in the common area. They each went immediately to a seat, giving Jyn the impression it was old habit. She lingered until everyone else was settled and then slid onto the edge of the bench beside Saw. />
  It took two more hyperspace jumps and a bit of flying to get to the system in the Western Reaches where they would intercept the Imperial pinnace. Jyn wondered which planet they were near. Saw hadn’t been specific; he’d just said it was an ice world, which had reminded Jyn of a planet she’d been to as a kid with her mother. The memory was foggy; she mostly recalled playing in the crystal-like caves, sliding over the ice.

  Saw didn’t give her much time to linger in her daydreams. He had her working on the code replicator and the doc developer for most of the trip. When she finished, he carefully analyzed the results. “These’ll do,” he said in a tone that made Jyn feel as if she weren’t good enough, but then he smiled at her, pride radiating from his eyes.

  Xosad returned to the cockpit, scanning the system for the Imperial undercover ship. The ship lurched so violently that Jyn slid from the bench, her knee colliding painfully with the metal floor.

  “I’ve made contact,” he called back. “Give me those docs.”

  Saw stood up and strode toward the cockpit.

  “Here’s where it gets interesting,” Jari mumbled, and his crewmates nodded grimly. Jyn felt a pressure on her lungs. What would happen if her codes didn’t work? She suddenly felt small and unimportant, sure that she would be the reason the mission failed.

  “We’re in,” Xosad called out, his voice echoing off the metal. “They took the bait.”

  Xosad angled his ship next to the Imperial one. While launching from Wrea and maneuvering through Smuggler’s Run had been a rocky ride, Xosad handled the close range of docking with the Imperial ship’s port with a finesse that surprised Jyn.

  “You stay back,” Saw ordered Jyn. “Guard the port. Any of their men try to board our ship, shoot them.”

  Jyn glanced at the port that would open up to a transport tube connecting the two ships. She imagined a stormtrooper, white-and-black armor, running toward her through the tube. She nodded grimly.

  Saw took position in front of the port. He was the face of the mission; Xosad’s crew of Twi’leks and a Togruta would be suspicious. As soon as the transport tube extended between the ships and the port area was repressurized, the doors opened. Through a short tunnel and from behind the others, Jyn could see the interior of a small ship, sleek white plastoid and chrome glistening in contrast to the rough and dull metal of Xosad’s ship.