Last Shot - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 16

Kelsa Antilles

"Reinforcements! Finally!" Kelsa cheered as she maneuvered her X-Wing to avoid being shot down by the turrets of a Star Destroyer.

She glanced over at Lyra's X-Wing, surprised that Lyra wasn't more nervous about flying this time around. The stakes were much higher than they had been before, but Lyra seemed determined to fly, and of course, Kelsa wasn't about to stop her.

Together they took out the command deck of the Star Destroyer, aided by a few of their reinforcements. It exploded behind them and started careening towards the barren ground below.

"Good job!" Kelsa congratulated everyone. "That just leaves...a lot more left. But don't worry, we've got this now!"

She dipped her X-Wing down, firing at a squadron of TIE fighters, grinning with satisfaction as they exploded around her.

"We're winning!" Lyra said happily over the comm. "We're actually winning!" She shot down an enemy fighter on her own, and Kelsa cheered with her.

"We can do this," Poe suddenly announced over the comm. "I don't think they can hold out much longer."

"Copy that," Kelsa responded. "Let's finish this." In his little pocket on her fighter, BB-11 chirped excitedly.

All of the sudden, the giant, upside down pyramid structure beneath the battle opened up, and Kelsa instantly got a very bad feeling. There was no way this could be good.

A few moments later, lightning shot up from the opening, striking all of the ships engaged in battle, specifically the Resistance and their allies. BB-11 made a shrill screaming sound as the lightning hit Kelsa's X-Wing, his little head rolling around wildly.

"I'm losing control!" Kelsa cried, frantically trying to keep her fighter in the air as the controls sparked and flashed. Her systems went down, and her X-Wing plummeted past other struggling ships and the triumphant Final Order. Her heart lurched as she neared the ground, and she mashed as many buttons as she could, trying to start up the power again.

"Come on, come on," she muttered, wiping away beads of sweat from underneath the visor of her helmet. She hit the right button just in time and the engines started up again. She pulled upward on the control yoke, avoiding immediately hitting the ground but not the crash.

The nose of her ship dug into the ground, and she was thrown forward, though her crash webbing kept her from going too far, and had her helmet not been on, she could have easily been killed. As soon as the fighter settled, she took off her helmet before pushing off the top of the X-Wing and hopping out, running over to where BB-11 was beeping loudly with fright.

"It's OK, BB, I'm fine," she told him, lifting him out of his compartment and setting him down on the ground. Lightning flashed, striking the ground only a few feet away from them, and they both jumped. Here it was darker, with more cloud cover, and Kelsa felt a chill run up her spin. She didn't have to be a Jedi to know that something was definitely wrong about this place. She pulled out her comlink and pressed it, hoping someone would hear her. "Hello, anyone? My ship crashed, but I'm fine. Can I get an assist?"

After a brief moment of crackling static, Lyra's voice replied, "On my way now." A few seconds later, Kelsa could see her friend's white-and-blue X-Wing come through the dark clouds and she waved as it got closer.

Lyra landed her starfighter and slid out, tossing off her helmet as she hurried over to Kelsa and her droid companion with a look of concern. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Kelsa shrugged and responded, "Nothing that won't heal fast." She eyed Lyra's X-Wing dubiously. "How are we both going to fit in that?"

Lyra blinked at her, apparently never considering the problem. "Oh, I never thought of that. Um, I'll contact a transport, but it'll be a few minutes before someone can help."

"That's fine," Kelsa assured her, though BB warbled in annoyance beside her. His antennae was bent, and she leaned down to fix it. "You can go back up there if you want."

Lyra shook her head, her eyes focused on something in the near distance. "No, I'll stay down here." She suddenly gasped and her eyes went wide. "We need to get to that temple."

"You mean the one that shot lightning at us?" Kelsa demanded skeptically, but Lyra was already moving. "Wait, what's going on? Lyra, wait!"

"There's no time!" Lyra called back, and Kelsa sighed deeply, glancing at BB-11.

"I should go after her, shouldn't I?" she asked, and he nudged her with an exasperated beep. "Alright, alright, I'm going. Just calm down." She turned and took off in Lyra's direction, her friend disappearing into the shadow of the massive structure in front of them. What have I gotten myself into?