Resistance isn't futile, it's practically suicide.

[Enedra Myrrhe]

"Dammit, we're cut off!" She swore as the comlink in her ear died, the comfortable static crashing into silence at the worst posible moment.

"What do you mean, cut off? We can't be!" Price's voice went higher pitched, hand in hand with his level of fear.

"Shut up and listen, Price. Take Gen, Lorris, and Turo. Head west around the perimeter, and see if you can't find out where they disrupted the comms." Enedra barked the order, hoping to snap her worthless, panicking officer out of his head space. The man was a sheep-fucking idiot, and it was just her forsaken luck to have been saddled with him.

"But-"

"NOW!" she hissed, grabbing him tightly by the collar and throwing him towards the doorway. Bloody fucking hell. If he didn't come back, she would not be sorry. They were fighting for their lives and this fool couldn't keep his shit together long enough to be of any use.

"INCOMING!"

Shells exploded just outside, shaking the entire structure and crumbling one of the stone walls opposite their position. Enedra dove for her Deece and gave the signal to evacuate. It was too close. The bastards knew exactly where they were.

"RENDEZVOUS IN THIRTY! GO, GO, GO!"

The rebels scattered, taking what equipment was vital and leaving everything else behind. Temporary headquarters were just that, temporary. But how the bastard Imps had found them so fast was a damn mystery. There was either a traitor in the ranks again, or the fuckers were just real gods damned lucky.

Enedra held her breath as she raced through the acrid smoke, narrowly avoiding the cloud of dirt and debris sent up by yet another shell. She didn't look back. Couldn't afford to. There was a prayer sent up to whichever deities were listening that they got her people out of it this time.

She just hoped that help didn't come too late.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben Merasska squinted, desperately searching for the sign that what he was looking for was still there. They were sneaky, but he'd worked with their types before.

"Aha!" he exclaimed, seeing them. They looked fairly worn, but not so bad off as he'd expected. He slid his gloves on and set to work, and in a couple minutes, he'd gotten what he was looking for... just one more thing to do...

"Oh hells!" he coughed, waving away some of the acrid smoke that wafted up from the wires he was soldering.

"Ben. We have received a message from the Lilliputs."

Ben frowned as he pondered what Xerxes, the onboard AI, said. The first time he'd said "The Alliance", the pilot nearly soiled himself, as it was just as he was leaving to assure the incoming Imperial patrol he wasn't a rebel that Xerxes had received the message. He'd told Xerxes to refer to them as the Lilliputs, desperate for a term that wouldn't give away the fact he was working indirectly and sometimes even directly for a subversive armed group intent on toppling the current system of government.

"Alright," he said, placing the panelling back onto the floor and wiping his hands on his trousers. "What do they say?"

"To Ben Merasska. Some friends of ours need picking up. They've overstayed their welcome on Oon Tien. They include some coordinates for where we should land."

Ben blanched, but nodded. That didn't sound good, even if he wasn't sure what they were saying at all.

"Alright. Let's get ourselves over there."


---------------------------------------------


Things were quiet as he reverted close to the planet and engaged his sublight engines on their highest output level.

Even the dealing with the port authorities was simpler than he'd wanted.

"What's the time for pick-up?"

"In five minutes, Ben."

"That's not much of window," he grumbled. "Okay. Let's get ourselves ready for a quick getaway, eh?"

Xerxes answered in the affirmative, and Ben lowered the boarding ramp, and stepped out into the landing bay.

"I got a bad feeling about this," he muttered. "But no, let's stay."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Let me see, Nang, let me see!"

Draiya slugged her partner-in-crime in the arm three times in short succession, causing the Zabrak teenager to curse and drop the macros he was previously using to survey the battle happening nearby. She scooped them up, pressing them to her face as she shimmied into a comfortable spying position, her mouth agape slightly at the sight of real combat.

"Can you beljieve thjis?"

A mischievious grin spread on her face as she hit the zoom, watching an advancing AT-ST in the distance. As close as they were, they could feel the explosions happening just a few hundred meters down from the hill they were on.

"Draiya, we should head back, shouldn't we?"

She scoffed from behind the macros.

"Not a chance. We stay herre. Thjink of all the stuff we can fjind when they'rre gone. We'd be the coolest kjids jin the convoy."

The Convoy. She hesitated, biting her lower lip. Berthed back in the city, the two dozen fuel tankers that were Draiya and Nang's mobile village were offloading their cargo. They'd set off the moment they hit planetside, ready to explore and get in trouble. She hadn't thought about it, but she hoped this sudden attack wouldn't mean they'd leave without them. She wasn't afraid of artillery or blaster fire, but she was afraid of parents. Their parents would kill them. Still...

She resumed watching, enraptured yet again.

"That walkerr jis so cool. Wouldn't jit be awesome to drrjive one. Stomp! Stomp!"

She paused. Something wasn't right.

"Nang?"

"Yeah, Draiya?"

She had a bad feeling suddenly. Like, more than a feeling.

"You'rre rrjight. We need to go. Go."

The Zabrak didn't need to be told twice. He backed away, and took off down the back of the hill. Draiya was set to follow, but an explosion nearby caused her to turn around, her fickle curiosity suddenly hooked again. Standing up and preparing to leave, she still remained in the same spot, watching a lady (a Rebel maybe?) flee from approaching stormtroopers. They were so close! Her eyes went wide as she watched, forgetting about the butterflies in her stomach.

"You there!"

Ice suddenly pumped in her veins. That voice wasn't Nang's, and it was very, very close. Behind her, in fact.

She turned around to see a Stormtrooper pointing a blaster at her.

[Enedra Myrrhe]

Roots and tocks threatened to upend her at every turn as she raced off towards the rendezvous point. She had less than ten minutes to get there she realized as she dared a glance down at her chrono. Shit. That blast must have knocked her back further than she'd thought.

Enedra growled as she fell to the ground, spitting out curses as she heard the familiar stacatto beat of stormtroopers running behind her.

Damn that sheep-fucking idiot Price...if he'd only just complied with her orders, this slaughter might have been avoided.

She scrambled to her feet and kept running, catching the familiar flash of white through the smoke off to her left. Instinct made her flinch and reflex made her train her Deece on the troopers head and squeeze the trigger.

-nothing-

Fuck.

Lulu wasn't working.

Ok then. When in doubt, Enedra thought, improvise. She didn't recognize the girl the trooper had 'caught' but thought she'd come from one of the convoys. Why hadn't they evacuated when the fighting had started?

She ducked behind a stand of trees and circled around, coming up behind the trooper. She tapped him on the shoulder.

And then promptly slammed Lulu into his 'face'.

[Ben Merasska]

"Why am I doing this?" Ben asked himself for the fifth time, as he shifted the speeder into gear and glanced into the rear-view. "This is such a bad idea, such a bad idea."

"Data from the contacts' comm-links puts them one degree north-northeast of your position."

Ben hummed anxiously and changed his direction slightly enough to compensate.

"I see them!" Ben shouted as he came up on their position. He swung the speeder around and turned to look at them. "They're uh, coming, and I really don't wanna die right now!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Aiya!"

She exclaimed, shrinking away from the fight. The woman put the stormtrooper down, fortunately, and she stood over the Imperial's unconcious form. Suddenly not finding this war nearly as interesting, she backed away from the Rebel. She'd read plenty of things about Rebels from the holos. They were all hard cases and killers, weren't they?

[Enedra Myrrhe]

Leaning down, she twisted the trooper's helmet and slid two fingers underneath it, tugging out a piece of wiring to disable the electronics. With a grim expression, she dropped Lulu and picked up the troopers Deece instead, and didn't forget to take the extra ammunition clips.

Enedra glanced at the frightened girl and softened her expression. She'd been there before, and wasn't so far removed that she was completely unfeeling. A sigh passed her lips as she nodded. "You can't stay here, there's a squadron of troopers right on my heels. Come with me, and we'll get you back to your convoy."

She cursed as the troopers were now more audible in the smoke around them, while some small path of it was cleared by Ben's timely arrival. Hopping onto the back and dropping the Deece in her lap, she gestured to Draiya as Ben revved the speeder.

"We don't have any time left! Come on!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya hesitated, her instincts wanting to go, but everything she heard caused her to waver. She looked back nervously in the direction that Nang had taken off.

"My frrjiend Nang..."

Who she had completely lost track of. She bit her lower lip. The stormtroopers were gaining a lot of ground, weren't they? This had been a stupid idea, and it was all her fault.

She carefully offered up her hand to the Rebel.

[Ben Merasska]

"We don't have time," Ben said with more than a little bite to his tone, and reached back, pulling the girl into the speeder and jamming down the accelerator, pushing the speeder into double digit speeds before a second had passed.

He drove straight for the city, unerringly, and only looked back once to see if they were followed. The sight that greeted them as they crested the last hill to the city was not a nice one. Roadblocks, and what seemed to be an entire company of Stormtroopers were waiting for them. Ben stepped on the brakes and spun the speeder around.

"Ohhhh hells," he murmured, seeing a couple speeder bikes being set up. "Ohhh hells."

[Enedra Myrrhe]

Enedra helped settle the girl between herself and Ben, nudging her to hold onto him. For his part, he handled the speeder with an expert hand, a fact for which she was immensely grateful. They zoomed along, unfollowed, until the speeder spun and came to a halt.

She glanced down the hill with the first 'Oh hells' and muttered something slightly more colorful under her breath with the second.

"Dammit...and this is the best way to the spaceport..." Enedra replied, picking up the Deece in her lap. Dark eyes were watching the troopers, two of whom had finally taken notice of them up on the crest of the hill, and were mounting two of the speeders.

"Gao yang jong duh goo yang! We're going to have company"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Keenly aware of the viper's nest of danger she had gotten herself into, Draiya watched wordlessly with huge saucer eyes as the chaos unfolded around her. On the lam with two Rebels, fleeing the Empire who were suddenly around every corner. And she was in the middle. Her breath quickened in her chest as she saw the stormtroopers heading toward them.

She never wanted to disappear more at any point in her life. Just go away and hide, and make trouble pass her by. Holding her breath in a gasp, she tightly shut her eyes...

...and the speeder disappeared.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben froze to the spot, watching as the speeders picked up speed and slowed at their position.

"Think it was a mirage?" one scout trooper asked. The other shook his head.

"No. It can't be cloaking. They must have run. Let's head to the forest. They'd have the most cover there."

Ben bit his lip, wondering if he'd finally lost it, and simply had gone insane. The tension kept building. He looked at the woman, whose eyes were wide and her hand was clamped over her mouth. She looked back, and Ben was relieved she looked about as freaked as he did.

Their eyes drifted down, to the girl who was sitting with her eye shut tightly and shivering.

Ben looked back at the Stormtroopers. Why did craziness follow him around? Had he offended some god?

"Let's go," the first trooper said. Ben's eyes widened, and he farted, loudly. The trooper looked around, and then at his partner. One could almost see the confused expression on his face through the helmet he was wearing. "Did you hear that?"

Ben gulped, refusing to look in either direction. The troopers didn't move, and one seemed to notice something odd, while he looked straight at them. His hand raised, and he reached out to them, as if trying to dispel a sudden hallucination. His hand rested on the woman's shoulder.

"Wait, what?" he said, and Ben's foot nearly crushed the accelerator, shooting the three of them off and stunning the two troopers even more before they gathered their wits.

[Enedra Myrrhe]

She'd managed at least, to free one hand and carefully - quietly - wrap her fingers around the grip of the Deece in her lap. She lifted it slowly, biting the inside of her cheek hard enough to make her eyes water.

-silent-

-perfectly still-

Enedra almost laughed, bordering on the edge of hysteria as Ben...farted. Of all the sounds to make to alert the troopers that something just wasn't right. When the trooper's hand came out, she froze, the Deece half -raised, finger poised on the trigger.

Thank the gods that Ben nearly broke the accelerator with his foot.

As they shot away, Enedra finished raising the Deece and blasted the directional steering vanes off of one of their speeders.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

At last, she exhaled, and as a result of her extended breath-holding, spent a few beats puffing in and out to catch her breath. Wide-eyed, she looked back at the commotion they were leaving behind.

"They werre rrjight therre and djidn't see us!"

Her eyes boggled.

"You have a cloakjing devjice on yourr speederr?!?!"

Her mouth took on a perfect "O" as she peered at Ben.

"That jis...oh my Goddess, the coolest thjing everr!"

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh," Ben answered, looking in the rearview and grimacing. They were down a speederbike, but it seemed to hardly slow down the two that crested the hill soon after. "This speeder isn't cloaked."

Ben barely stopped himself from giving the long answer as to why the speeder wasn't cloaked, or at least didn't have a cloaking device on it.

He turned, and banked around the sudden appearance of a Scout Walker, stepping out of the tree line directly to their right.

"Hold on!" he called, weaving to make them a harder target. The walker fired, causing a gout of earth to geyser skyward directly behind them. The speeder bikes also opened fire, bolts of burning plasma pealing through the air around them, some scoring the back of their own speeder, but miraculously not hurting any of them.

Yet.

"Is there a reason I'm always running for my life, or is this just something that happens to everyone?" he asked loudly. "Have I offended some deity? I'm sorry! Please stop sending mean people to kill me!"

[Enedra Myrrhe]

"Nope! This time its probably my fault. I seem to attract people with blasters. Must be my perfume!" Enedra practically shouted over the roar of the engine as Ben pushed the speeder faster. Part of her mind was still trying to reconcile how they'd disappeared from sight and why the young girl thought they'd had a cloaking device...

...but then, they'd helped that Jedi who had passed through Oon Tien's capital just last year. A blonde girl, maybe a few years older than this one. She'd at least had some training - it had been nearly a pleasure to watch the stormtrooper's blaster bolts being tossed back at them for a change.

She nudged Draiya to lean forward slightly, and move as Ben did, while she nearly bent herself backwards to return fire at the speeders. One of them, at least, she managed to send wildly off course with the troopers diving off to save themselves before it exploded against a tree.

"Take the right-hand side of the fork up ahead. We've got to get off of this main road, and this bends back towards the city, following the river."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The close-sounding blaster shot came unexpectedly, and Draiya cupped her hands over her ears, yelping at the sound. Her ears were ringing, and she again held her breath. Go away, go away, go away, go away...

This time, she noticed the lull in action. The Imperial pursuit lagged behind, and the shots didn't come anywhere near them.

GoAwayGoAwayGoAwayGoAway

She continued to hold her breath, concentrating on this one line of thought, holding onto a hope that she was somehow helping.

[Ben Merasska]

"Take the right-hand side of the fork up ahead. We've got to get off of this main road, and this bends back towards the city, following the river."

Ben nodded and turned as directed. The Imperial pursuit dropped off, though not completely. Ben grinned as he looked back and saw the distance between them and the Imperials growing.

"I think we lost 'em!" he said, laughing in relief, only to get a large clod of earth in his mouth. A second later the sound of a Lambda shuttle's engines drowned out everything else. Ben paled and gunned the engine, only to juke to the right, passing over a bridge and out onto uncovered grassland on the other side. They were now without cover.

"There's no way we're going to outrun that!" he yelled, seeing the speeder bikes and AT-STs breaking the cover of the forest to their right. he turned left sharply, losing the Lambda, which had to turn slowly to get the fleeing Rebels and passenger back into its sights. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his commlink. "Xerxes! Xerxes, are you there? Of course you're there, so answer!"

Another shot from the Lambda gouged a large crater right beside the speeder, causing Ben to lose the commlink, which bounced off the back seat and get caught in a small indention on the back of the speeder.

[Enedra Myrrhe]

A Lambda. Of course it was a Lambda. Could anything else possibly go wrong today?

If it were a holo-film, the background noises, including the Lambda, would have been muted. The light would have dimmed until a single point remained, highlighting the comlink as it danced out of Ben's hand, passed the other two of them and dangled precariously off of the back of the speeder. Its melodic plinking would even have been audible.

But, sadly, it wasn't, and the comlink was now hanging off the back end of the speeder, ready to be dislodged if any of them so much as looked at it funny.

Enedra threw a glance over her shoulder - their tails were still there, though not gaining on them. Then again, getting too close would only put them in the line of fire as well.

Being the furthest back, she was going to have to try and reach the comlink. With one hand holding the seat, she reached out with the Deece, praying to every deity she'd ever heard of under her breath. Enedra managed to get the comlink hooked on the end of the scope, but Ben jerked the speeder to the right. She let go of the Deece in favor of grabbing the comlink as it flew up into the air, managing to not fall off at the same time.

Would have been a great moment if they weren't about to be roadkill. Leaning forward again, Enedra flicked the comlink on and handed it to Draiya, nudging her to hold it up so Ben could use it.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Quickly fumbling about to orient the device in the correct direction, Draiya leaned forward, almost bear-hugging Ben as she pressed the comm against his face. Her eyes screwed shut, and again she hoped and prayed that she'd somehow get out of all of this alive.

"Talk, mjisterr! Talk!"

The shots again seemed to die down around them. Afraid to look, but unable to resist, the little girl peeked one eye open.

[Ben Merasska]

"Xerxes! Damn it, where could he be!"

Ben jerked the controls to the left, and then to the right, desperately juking out of the way of some shots fired by the AT-STs which were now gaining some ground.

The Lambda shuttle still hovered dangerously close by, as well.

"Ben, your voice tone and pitch indicates that you are under stress. Or is it duress? Organic language is sometimes needlessly complicated."

"Xerxes!" Ben called, unable to hear the artificial intelligence's remarks over the wind and sounds of the speeder, the Lambda, and the increasing number of blaster shots overhead. "We need to get out of here!"

"I am on my way. Please endeavour to refrain from expiring."

Xerxes had apparently modulated his voice to be better distinguished over the ambient noise around them.

Ben swore and jerked his head to the side, hoping the girl would take her hand away from him.

"Refrain from expiring? What does he think I... we are, produce?"

He checked the speeder's dials, hoping there'd be a compass somewhere on it. Thankfully, there was one. They were heading south east.

"Hold on!" he called, and turned sharply to face north east. All three of them were thrown to the right, with the young girl with the familiar accent almost tumbling over the side and out.

"Uh, strap in!"

[Enedra Myrrhe]

"Ha! I bet he's a droid...refrain from-"

Enedra quickly grabbed onto Draiya so the girl wouldn't fall, eyes widening as she nearly went over in the process. The rest of her words were lost in the pained roar of the speederbike's engine being pushed faster and maneuvered harder than it was meant to be.

Of course, being shot at by a Lambda wasn't helping matters either. She seriously hoped Xerxes hurried the hell up otherwise they'd all be expiring in quick succession.

"The Empire forgot the seatbelts on this thing!" A short peal of laughter escaped as she glanced over her shoulder towards their pursuers. "Uhhh...lister faster would be good...they're gaining and the Lambda's getting ready to fire again!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Trying to catch her breath from the adrenaline spilling through her, Draiya hugged onto Enedra for dear life. Ahead in the distance, she could make out another ship swooping down. The make of it wasn't Imperial, and that lifted her spirits. They were going to make it.

"Go! Go!"

A sizzling blaster bolt sailed a bit close for comfort, and her eyes snapped shut as she shrieked. Again, the speeder blinked out of sight.

[Ben Merasska]

The Chase (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEO-3CZzTA0&feature=share&list=PL1CBCA008E7380A4D)

Ben heard the Lambda closing in, and turned violently to avoid the shots, which exploded only a couple meters behind them. The speeder bucked and shimmered back into view, the tail end pointing directly at the shuttle.

The first sign of Xerxes and the Shooting Star was a shadow passing over them, and then dropping down ten meters in front of them, causing a cloud of dust to spray up and get in their open mouths. Ben spat and gunned the accelerator, as the speeders began closing in and firing their blasters, scoring a couple glancing hits on the chassis of their getaway vehicle. Ahead of them, the ship spun to face them, and the boarding ramp began to drop.

"Hold on!" he called, and broke the accelerator, causing warning lights to go off, barely heard over the whine of the engines and laser cannon and blaster fire. The courier ship slowed, and Ben turned them over a slight dip and rise, launching off the ground and over the edge of a gorge none of them had known was there.

They seemed to hang in mid-air forever. Finally, their upward momentum stopped, and they began to fall. Ben realized he was screaming, and the speeder's engines and repulsors had given out.

The nose of the speeder began to drop, and all three fugitives could see the river hundreds of meters below them, before the boarding ramp obscured their vision, and the abused aircar crashed into the arched entranceway, only slightly too large to skid completely into the ship. Below them, the boarding ramp closed, causing a loud screeching as the speeder's chassis was quite literally shaved off, leaving them in the curious silence of Ben's ship.

Welcome aboard, Ben, and passengers. Xerxes' voice emanated suddenly from the internal comm system. I would like to remind you that -

The AI's reminder was cut short as the ship shuddered violently.

- there is an Imperial shuttle close behind and firing upon us. The computer finished blithely.

"Kriff!" Ben gasped and jumped out of the driver's seat and ran to the cockpit, sliding into the pilot's seat and turning the ship around. "Strap in, because, ah, I'm not staying here, and we're about to go really, really fast!"

[Enedra Myrrhe]

She laughed. She had to laugh...the sheer amount of adrenaline that spiked through her veins was enough to make her feel completely invincible.

"Thank you, Xerxes!" she grinned, calling out as Ben fled to the cockpit.

At least, until the ramp started closing and threatened to sheer her off with the end of the speeder. Enedra helped Draiya into a nearby seat and spoke softly but with no small amount of urgency. "Strap in, sweetie. And try to relax...you may have a nasty headache soon."

What was left of the speeder presented a bit of a problem. The way Ben shouted about an impending burst of speed made the possibility of speeder part to face a distinct possibility. Frankly, Enedra thought, I have enough scars, and the kid doesn't need one. In the few moments she had, she secured what she could using whatever she could find at hand. At a more opportune moment, she'd have to have a word with him about the lack of proper amount of rope.

Enedra barely made it into a seat - more like, she was flung into one as the shuttle lurched forward and tried to leave her behind. A wince marred her features as she struggled into a seated position and strapped herself in under considerable protest from her left wrist.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Still shaking like a leaf under her adrenaline, Draiya held onto her harness with white knuckles.

"Wherre are we gojing?"

Her words came out weak and breathless, as she tried to gulp down air after so many brushes with death forced her to hold her breath. The ship bucked and shuddered as Enedra promised, causing her to shriek, yet still manage to let her curiosity get the better of her and glance out the nearest viewport.

[Ben Merasska]

"Away from here, kid," Ben answered quickly, his hands flashing across the panels.

The ship shook again.

"I am really starting to hate that shuttle, Xerxes," Ben called out, gripping the steering column as it popped out from the paneling and settled his feet on the pair of pedals beneath.

I am not able to offer any solutions to the problem of the hostile shuttle, Ben.

Ben swore and pulled hard up on the controls, jetting them through the atmosphere and into space in the space of two seconds.

The seeming peace of orbital space was shattered by the sight of a large cruiser bearing down on them.

"Okay, Xerxes, get me a heading for a jump to hyperspace while I get us out of the gravity well," the pilot said, turning the ship in the opposite direction and applying the full power of the sublight engines to the task of their escape. The cruiser gained, and began to fire, mercifully missing them. Ben juked, twisting their path perpendicular to the path of the cruiser.

Alarms sounded.

"Put all the ship's non-essential power into rear deflectors and sublight engines," he said, and only the AI's bloodless affirmation reminded his passengers that he wasn't talking to himself.

The ship shuddered as Ben stopped all evasive maneuvers and simply forced the ship to fly like the shooting star that was the class's namesake, away from the cruiser.

At the AI's announcement, Ben pushed the hyperdrive levers forward, and the stars elongated, and the alarms cut off, leaving the cockpit in silence. Ben collapsed bonelessly into his seat.

"Let's never do that again, yeah?" he said out loud, looking at the lights in the panels directly above him.