into the chaos! → luke skywalker ✓

v. the message

⋆☆* ✧✰.✦

"THE DEATH STAR WILL BE IN RANGE IN FIVE MINUTES" weren't exactly the words of reassurance Cassia Tarin craved at that moment. The battle hadn't even started yet and she was already a mess, but she took slight comfort in knowing she wasn't the only one. Everyone in the command center was falling apart bit by bit, each of them feeling utterly useless on the ground.

She found that her thoughts kept returning to Luke. She had only known him for a few hours, but she already knew he was going to be an important part of her life. There was just something about him, something so special, something she had never seen before. He was so innocent and eager, but scarred and knowledgeable at the same time. He had seen the worst in people, yet he always aimed to see the best in them. Plus, he cared about her, and that put him on a very short list. She worried about him up there in space battling the Empire.

It was chaos from the start; TIE Fighters were dispatched almost immediately and the Rebellion crafts were taking heavy fire. X-Wings and the accompanying Y-Wings were lighter and faster than a TIE, which worked to their advantage, but the Empire had numbers the Rebellion couldn't even dream of. The Wings held up well together, but they would be going into that shaft without backup, and Cas feared the inevitable result of that.

She thought about the Death Star, about how if the battle failed, Yavin IV's fate would be the same as Alderaan's, how her fate would be the same as Bail and Breha's. Once again, she thought of Bail and how he had sacrificed so much to build the Rebellion from the ground up. He had kept her and Leia out of it as much as he could in case the Empire caught on, but she knew how important he had been in its operation. He, of course, had been more involved with the politics than the battles, but she knew he had on many occasions stood where she did right then, debating moves with Mon Mothma and the others as he tried to restore the Republic and end the Empire's reign. He had given his life for it, and Cas feared she and Leia and Luke and all the others would soon be following in his footsteps.

The three minute warning jerked Cas back into reality. The first few attempts to destroy the Death Star had failed, and she was startled to hear Luke's voice going over the comms. He was taking charge in a way she hadn't expected for a Tatooinian farm boy, and while she admired him for it, she also hated him for it. The more he took charge, the more likely he was to get himself killed. She wanted nothing more than to reach for the comms and order him to stand down, but it would have been a selfish action, not to mention the fact that she didn't have any real power over the situation. She may have been a captain in the Alderaan Security Forces, but she didn't have an official place in the Rebellion, at least not yet. Her main job—her only job, now—was to protect Leia, and at that moment she was in no position to give orders or even really do much of anything except stand there and listen.

Leia reached over and grasped her hand as the two minute warning was issued, and the gesture soothed her as much as it scared her. Their chances of survival were getting slimmer with each passing second and they both knew it; it was only a matter of time before their time ran out. Or, alternatively, it was the princess's way of offering reassurance that they would prevail in time, but Cas had a feeling she was right with the first thought.

Artoo was out of service. Many Wings had been shot down. Time was running out. TIEs were closing in. Hope was deteriorating on both sides of the comms. Luke, however, seemed to know what he was doing; he switched off his targeting computer, and Cas may have not known him for long, but she knew he wouldn't do something like that unless he had a plan. Plus, he had the Force on his side, didn't he? That had to count for something.