Once he was hooked up, Racer spent a good chunk of time slicing into the detention center's data system to find what we needed. During that time, Vaz, Julus, and Nal had to fight off three attempts to stop us, all of them falling very short, and only the last requiring us to use a couple of remote detonating mines that Nal set up. The rest of us continued to make sure the center was clear, with no surprises waiting around the corner.

  When Racer finally gained access to the system, we were surprised to learn that almost the entire facility was empty. Apparently, there wasn't much use keeping prisoners around long-term. Most people confessed to their "crimes" pretty quickly at the tender mercies of the Imperial interrogators and were then sent to real prisons for their sentence. We did, however, find Wedge, Hobbie, and Tycho pretty quickly. I could have technically found them faster with Clairvoyance, but this way, Racer could just grab the codes to the cell doors at the same time.

  Made everything easier.

  With a new target in mind, Ahsoka and I rushed through the detention center once more, making our way to the back line of cells, this time stopping when we reached the right one. I quickly punched in the cell door while Ahsoka got the cell behind me.

  The thick security door slid open swish, revealing a relatively familiar interior, the dark, smooth walls broken up with a single solid bed. Opposite that was a toilet, equally simple and cold-looking. It honestly looked quite similar to the room that Princess Leia spent time in on the Death Star. As I stepped down into the cell, the only other occupant, Wedge Antilles, stood up straight.

  He was looking a little worse for wear, with a busted lip, bruises along his face, and a wince that told me the rest of his body probably looked worse. His hands were locked behind his back by a pair of binders, making the defensive stance he took when the door first opened a bit pointless.

  "No karking way," he said, his eyes going wide when he realized what was going on. "You- The Skyforged Vanguard? I recognize your armor… You actually came to rescue us?"

  "General Syndulla hired us," I explained, pulling my helmet off. "Deacon Roy, at your service."

  The amount of relief that flooded through the man was almost palpable, and I had to rush forward to keep him from stumbling to his knees. I quickly dumped healing energy into him, followed by a double dose of Respite.

  "By the Force, I feel… good!' He said, looking at me with a genuine smile. "To think they would send the leader of the Skyforged after me. I'm flattered."

  "You got lucky, my friend. We just happened to be around when they learned you'd been taken," I said, managing to smoothly keep from mentioning Alpha Base. "C'mon, we need to get your compatriots and then get the hell out of here."

  "How did you even get to us?" Wedge asked, following after me. "We only got a glimpse, but this base is pretty big. There were at least a few defensive turrets as well."

  "Don't forget the defensive fleet," I pointed out, nodding to Ahsoka as she walked out with Hobbie, who smiled as he spotted Wedge.

  While I healed the next pilot, Ahsoka opened the final door, cursing and rushing into the cell. I cast one last healing spell on Hobbie before hurrying after her, the other two quickly following behind. The cell was cramped, with all of us rushing in, but I could easily see why Ahsoka had sworn.

  While Hobbie and Wedge had been roughed up considerably, Tycho had been viciously beaten and tortured. His face was a black and blue mass of swollen flesh, his body clearly even worse as he failed to sit up on his own. He had hundreds of small cuts along his chest and arms, his uniform torn away to show that the word "Traitor!" had been carved and burned crudely into his chest in . It was a gruesome sight, and the fact that Tycho was still trying to stand up was even more impressive.

  "It's alright, stay down," I said, laying my hand gently on his shoulder. "I'll have you right as rain in a moment."

  I quickly cast Circle of Healing for the steady flow of healing energy before chain casting Heal Other and Heal Middling Trauma. Slowly but surely, the Imperial defector was healed, the bruise, burns, and slices along his flesh washing away. Finally, after nearly three minutes of pouring healing energies into him, I cast Respite twice, helping the man to his feet. His eyes were wide, and he was clearly in awe, his eyes darting between me, Ahsoka, Wedge, and Hobbie.

  "It's alright, Tycho. He is with us," Hobbie assured him, fighting down his own shocked look. "I know it's a lot, but the Rebellion hired them to get us out."

  "And to that effect, we should move," I cut in, nodding to the door of the cell. "We have a droid out front that should be able to get you out of those binders, then we have a change of clothes."

  I quickly pulled my helmet back on before leading the group back out to where my team was holding. Racer quickly removed their binders, the pilots rubbing their wrists while they thanked the droid. I quickly pulled out the beskar uniform I had been carrying and handed it to Wedge, while Tatnia and Nal handed theirs to Hobbie and Tycho.

  "Those are made from woven beskar," I explained to Tycho, since Hobbie and Wedge seemed to recognize them, all three of them staring in shock as they accepted their gifts. "Put them on and grab some weapons. Our target is the spaceport, and we need to move fast."

  "What if there aren't any ships there?" Wedge asked as he quickly pulled on his beskar shirt, gesturing for Tycho and Hobbie to hurry up and do the same.

  "Well.. judging by the amount of Storm commandos we've had to kill, I'd say their ship is still around," I pointed out. "Any idea what they were shipping you around on?"

  "An ," Tycho explained, checking over a blaster pistol before sliding it into his looted holster. "It's a ship made mostly for the Storm commandos. Something made to land troops on a planet, and hold any starfighters or armor they might have. About a hundred and eighty meters long."

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  "Hmmm… I want one," I said with a smirk, looking over to Tatnia. "Tatnia, I want one."

  "Well then, I suppose we should go steal one then," She responded casually, as if it was really just that simple.

  "I would be careful, sir," Tycho said with a worried look. "The Storm commandos are an elite force, taking it won't be easy. Especially with the defensive fleet above us."

  "Have a little faith, Mr Celchu," I said with a smile, though he couldn't see it. "Just a little goes a long way."

  He frowned but eventually nodded. I turned to the rest of my crew and nodded, everyone perking up and standing from their various positions in cover.

  "It's time to move, guys," I said. "We've been hanging around long enough. Wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting."

  My crew chuckled, and we quickly left the detention center behind, racing through the hallways until we once again found a maintenance hatch. One by one, we climbed inside, boosting up the pilots but using our repulsors to jump inside. From there, we continued to climb, carrying the pilots when necessary, up and up and up through the cramped but quiet tunnels.

  Eventually, Ahsoka cut us another hole, and we carefully climbed out of the tunnels and into a storage room of some kind. Resisting the urge to peek inside the various boxes around us to find out what they contained, I made my way to the door, which opened with a simple button push. Slowly, I stuck my head out, only to find the hallways clear, red lights flashing, and the alarm still blaring.

  "Alright, I think the building is more or less evacuated by now," I said, nodding out the door. "Let's get moving."

  "What's the plan?" Wedge asked as we moved, the three pilots walking in the center of the group as we did.

  "Well… we spent too long down in the detention center for them not to have set up an ambush somewhere," I responded, stopping when we met a wall. "So they probably have the entrances covered pretty heavily, and we lost all of our momentum, so blasting through is gonna be tough, especially with you guys not nearly as armored as us."

  "So what, the roof?"

  No, probably have that covered too," I guessed, running my hand along the wall before looking over to Racer, who spun his dome and whistled out a positive confirmation. "The thing about ambushes… the easiest way to beat them is to carve your own path. Go ahead, guys."

  Nal and Julus moved to the wall, reaching into their packs and pulling out a single each, carefully affixing them to the wall. Once they were in place, we all retreated down the hall while I cast Superior Ward, everyone hiding behind me.

  "Ready when you are, guys," I said, holding steady as Nal pressed the detonator.

  The explosion rocked the building, blowing out a huge chunk of the wall and spreading smoke and dust back down all connecting hallways. As we all ran towards it, it became clear that we were not on the first floor but rather the second floor, as we had planned. As we peered out the building's latest window, we got a good view of the buildings around us, as well as the street below. There, with the participants running around as they avoided debris, was our ambush, a dozen Storm commandos with twice that many stormtroopers. As chunks of duracrete fell down on them, my team opened fire, focusing on the several heavy weapons emplacements, while Vaz chucked a larger explosive device down on the transports. Now the explosions rocked the area around the entrance, destroying the vehicles and sowing chaos.

  The last remaining Imperial soldiers were blasted by myself and the rest of my team. After a moment to confirm that everyone was down, I grabbed Wedge and jumped, my repulsor pack floating us down to the ground, my team and the other pilots quickly joining us.

  Rather than waiting around for a ride and letting the Imperial forces set up an ambush, we immediately headed off, running as fast as we could across the base, dipping in between buildings. I kept everyone going by judicious use of the Respite spell, cleaning away anyone's flagging stamina. Unfortunately, due to a lack of enchanted gear, we still had to slow down a bit to make sure the pilots could keep up with us, but thankfully they were all in pretty good shape, so we still made good time.

  Unfortunately, our swift movement and random path could only keep us hidden for so long. We were about a fourth of the way to the starport when a squad of stormtroopers managed to catch us. We washed them out pretty quick, surprising our three pilot compatriots with our efficiency, but the damage was done. Soon, we were running from two dozen stormtroopers, dodging weapons fire as we ran.

  "Dammit. If we keep going like this, we are going to get pinned down by numbers alone. We need a ride if we are going to get there before the whole base is on us," I commented, shaking my head as we ran into another alley, a blaster bolt chasing after us. "Any idea?"

  "We keep killing until they bring us one," Tatnia said. "Then we steal it. You said it yourself, boss. This is going to be a slog."

  "Gonna end up killing half the base," I muttered to myself. "Alright, let's set up an ambush of our own."

  We ran through another alley, popping out in a wide street. Julus casually tossed down a series of mines behind us to cover our rear, before we all ran across the street. As we crossed, I fired at a nearby pillar, which was covered in consoles, with some sort of dish on top, and appeared to be a communication device of some kind. Rather than continuing on, we stopped, hunkered down, and waited to see who came to try and chase us down.

  Not long after we did, the mines Julus had placed exploded, annihilating whoever was tracing our path and crumbling a corner of the building. Only a few seconds after that, we could hear a speeder approaching.

  "Alright, time to see how well this works," I said, quickly casting Invisibility on myself, vanishing from view.

  "What the…"

  I didn't hear the rest of what Tycho said as I jogged out of the alleyway, just in time to watch a pair of troop transports pull up and start unloading stormtroopers. Rather than trailing after us, trying to herd us into a larger group, the stormtroopers ran head-first into the crew, completely unaware that we had stopped running. Meanwhile, while my crew slaughtered the shocked troopers, I snuck around one of the closer speeders.

  Still invisible, I stepped through the speeder's side door, pulling out a blaster as I spotted the two pilots. The first died from a single shot, my blaster pistol almost touching his helmet, while the other barely had time to see me before I slammed a conjured dagger into his chest. As quickly as I could, I dragged them out of their seats before taking control of the transport and aimed its forward cannons at the other speeder, firing the second I could.

  The red, thick bolts of energy slammed into the other speeders' cockpit, punching through the viewport and melting the interior in a shower of sparks. The next barrage did even more damage, causing the back end to blow out and the ship to slam into the ground, pouring out black smoke. I then spun the speeder around, making quick work of the stormtroopers who thought they were in cover but were, indeed, entirely flanked by me.

  I quickly climbed out of the speeder, dragging one of the dead Imperial pilots out with me, tossing them out the door. Dusting my hands off, I turned to the alleyway, spotting my crew as they carefully poked their heads out of the alleyway.

  "C'mon guys, before the next wave comes and that happens to us," I call out, waving at the still-burning and smoking speeder wreck. "Move it or lose it!"

  I watched as my whole team poured out of the alleyway, running to climb into my commandeered vehicle. Tycho and Hobbie climbed into the pilot seats of the speeder while Wedge climbed into the gunner's seat. All three of them were ex-imperials, after all, and skilled pilots. It only made sense that they would drive.

  "Next stop, the Imperial filled, probably already prepared, wide open to aerial attack starport!" I said, getting a few looks when I did. "What, you want me to lie? This shit is just starting."

  Tycho snorted, and I could hear Wedge chuckle. Whether it was the adrenaline or a manic response to their lives being on the line, I would take it either way. A few seconds later, we were making quick time toward our destination, but more importantly, we were just able to dive and weave away from several patrols trying to tighten around us.