Bounty

sixteen

"Where is she? It didn't take us this long to get here." Kix paces back and forth along the river as Calista keeps an eye on the trees.

"She said she was coming." Calista says. "She's your family, she wouldn't lie to you."

A rustling sound in the trees catches both of their attention and they turn to find a group of stormtroopers closing in on them. Calista quickly shoots at them with the small pistol as Kix begins to think the worst for Carina.

"Kix!" Calista shouts over the sound of the blasts, pulling him behind the trees for some sort of cover.

"How many are there?" Kix asks, snapping back to reality as poorly-aimed blasts fly past them.

"I couldn't get a good count, at least 5." Calista breathes heavily as she leans against a tree.

The blasts come to a brief pause and Kix peeks out to see that the troopers are aiming in a different direction. "Something's got their attention."

"Good, now's our chance to run." Calista pushes herself off of the tree but Kix stops her.

"It has to be Carina." He points, as he doubts the stormtroopers would give that much attention to a bird or lizard.

Calista looks around the tree to find only three troopers remaining and furrows her eyebrows. Kix follows her line of eyesight to watch as two of the troops shoot one another. A hooded figure jumps down from the trees and easily handles the last bucket-head.

Calista and Kix exchange a glance before stepping out into the open. Carina picks up the dropped blasters and lifts her head to see the couple staring back at her.

"I thought I told you to make sure the area is clear." She says as she approaches them. She hands a normal blaster to each of them before taking her pistols back. "Let's go, the way back to your ship should be free of troopers."

Kix blinks in confusion as he looks down at the girl. "Carina." He speaks up, earning her attention. "How did you..? You just.. There were five storm troopers."

"Seven." She corrects him. "Not that anyone is counting."

"You just took out an entire squadron of stormtroopers by yourself." Calista points. "You're gonna need to explain."

Carina sighs. "Alright just.. Not here. More are already on their way." She says, earning confused looks from both of them. "Come on."

She walks away from them, heading in the direction of their hidden ship. Carina cautiously watches her surroundings for anything unusual but, thanks to her leading the idiot troopers away from the village, they reach the ship with ease.

Calista immediately runs onboard to fire up the thrusters.

"You there! Freeze!"

Carina and Kix turn to find another squadron of troopers running their way.

"Kriffing hell." Carina mutters under her breath and Kix's eyes widen.

"Watch your language." Kix scolds her as his face slightly turns red.

Carina gives him an amused look as she cracks a smile. "You do know that I'm like the same age as you, if not older."

"You're still my niece." Kix states. The troopers begin firing at them as they get closer and Kix ducks. "Cal! We're gonna need to get out of here sometime today!"

"Alright! Alright!" Calista shouts back. When she was looking for a ship to steal on Corellia, maybe she should've picked something that wasn't a piece of junk.

Carina and Kix fire at the incoming troopers as the ramp closes in front of them. Once they're sealed inside, they join Calista in the cockpit as she gets the piece of junk ship in the air.

Just as they begin to hover, a loud thud against the top of the ship knocks them back into the ground. They glance through the window to find one of the shuttles firing at them.

"I can't get her up. They trapped us down here." Calista panics as she flips a few switches and tries to get the ship airborne again. "Whatever they dropped on top of us is too much weight for this rust bucket."

Carina takes a deep breath and steps back into the extremely small cargo hold of the ship. Kix slips into the copilot seat and does whatever Calista tells him in an attempt to help.

With her back facing the cockpit, Carina closes her eyes and focuses on the energy around her. Her new friends, the troopers outside of the ship, the ship itself, the fallen tree on top of the ship, and the shuttle closing in on them. She keeps her breathing steady and her mind clear as she holds her hands towards the roof of the ship.

"Wait wait, I think I got it!" Calista says as she pulls the ship off of the ground.

"And what about that?" Kix asks, referring to the shuttle firing at them.

As soon as the question leaves his mouth, a large tree is thrown at the shuttle—causing it to fall to the ground. Their eyes widen as they turn to face Carina, who seems extremely exhausted. Calista and Kix meet eyes as he rises from the copilot seat.

"I'm already on it." She assures him as she pulls the ship out of Raydonia's atmosphere.

Kix helps Carina into a seated position on the floor of the ship and sits beside her. "Carina?" He asks, watching as her eyelids fall. "Hey, Carina. Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Carina asks as she tiredly looks up at him. "Mhm. Just.. Tired."

Kix sighs and pulls her closer, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. He listens to the steady pace of her breathing and presses two fingers to her neck to check her pulse—both of which seem perfectly normal—and rests his head against the hull of the ship.

"You scared me back there, kid." Kix speaks softly.

Carina chuckles softly as her eyes remain closed. "Again, we're the same age."

Kix smiles to himself as he rests his head on top of hers.

Calista sets their course for somewhere in the Unknown Regions and switches into lightspeed. She turns in her chair to find Kix and Carina both asleep on the floor of the ship and smiles to herself. Her gaze lingers on Kix for a moment before she turns back to watch the stars fly by.

The First Order won't stop until they have Kix. If they were able to track them to Raydonia, they'll be able to find them anywhere.

Right now it looks like they have only one option, but she's not sure the other two are gonna like it too much.