It was Ka'iulani's quick thinking that saved them.
'It was him!' she yelled, pointing at the stormtrooper besides Face. 'He's one of them!' and then shot the wall behind them both.
Face's vision went white, and then he felt something sweep his legs from under him and he fell to the ground hard, while above him smoke poured out of the wall and angry red streaks illuminating the glowing cloud, hitting the walls next to him, behind him, hitting the stormtroopers closest, who fell to lay beside him. And then there was Ka'iulani - he knew it was Ka'iulani because she was screaming at him to move, then dragged him by his chestplate away from the chaos around them. He batted her hand away and began crawling like his life depended on it, because it did. His bad knee hated him for it, but he ignored the pain.
It was stupid. What a stupid, idiotic, braindead thing to have done - but he had no regrets. Someone like that, who could look at the depravity of the Empire, walk away and then do it all over again, but add kidnapping into the mix? He didn't deserve to live.
'You could have picked a better time for it,' Ka'iulani yelled at him, and for a brief moment he wondered if she could read his thoughts, but then realised that she had been berating him the entire time - which, he conceded, was fair. It was stupid.
They reached an interstection, turned a corner and sat up against the wall, glad to be out of the line of fire. Face cradled his leg, rubbing it, trying to soothe the aching pain. He didn't notice the squad of stormtroopers coming at them from the opposite until they were nearly on top of them.
'Play dead,' Ka'iulani whispered to him, then waved them over. 'Enemy right down the hall!' she pointed back where they came, and then stood and dragged Face away from the corner. 'Hold this intersection until back up arrives! I have to get my trooper immediate medical attention.'
'On it, sarge,' replied one trooper. Face saw them stack up at the corner and take turns shooting into the chaotic scene beyond. Brilliant, he thought. They think the other stormies are the insurgents while the other stormies think they are. Utterly brilliant. If they made it out of this, he would make sure Ka'iulani got - well, not a raise. There would definitely be celebratory chocolate though.
He waited until he was sure the new squads' attention was entirely not on them, then patted Ka'iulani's hand and got heavily to his feet. 'That was some fantastic thinking. Thank you.'
'Someone has to be the brains of the operation,' she replied, then headed down a random corridor. Face hobbled after.
They ran into other stormtroopers, other officers, but word of the battle had evidently spread and Face's condition was easily noticed that most either ignored them or filled in the blanks themselves, and the two managed to get away from the scene without issue. 'They wiped out my squad,' Ka'iulani would say in shock, to the few who did question them. 'They're all dead. Must be a dozen of the bastards,' and walk away before their questioners could ask anything else.
After a while they heard a beeping, and Face was surprised to realise that it was his commlink. They found a droid security terminal and ducked into it, the small apse giving them some privacy from casual view, before Face felt safe enough to answer.
'Hey One, how's things?' Vix asked casually, like he was calling up a friend he hadn't seen in a few days.
'Oh, not bad,' Face responded in kind. 'Leg's a bit stiff and I could do with a stiff drink. Work's been pretty hectic lately.'
'I hear the new boss is such a terror,' Vix said, all mock sympathy.
'Just the worst,' Face agreed. 'How are things out there?'
'Absolutely awful. Someone decided to drive their landspeeder into the communication tower. Completely messing with comms.'
Face grinned. He knew he could rely on his Nexus to provide the best distractions, especially ones that knocked out the First Order jammers. 'Hey, Nine. We're about ready to clock off, but my boss being a real pain and isn't letting anyone go. I don't suppose you could drop by for a pick up?'
There was something wicked about Vix's, 'oh I think I can do that,' that tickled and terrified Face. 'Whereabouts are you?'
Face and Ka'iulani shared a look, then a shrug. In all the chaos they had got themselves turned around. 'Third floor. Just by the cafeteria?' he added, fairly certain that they could find their way back to the barricaded galley.
'South-west corner,' Vix supplied, and Face realised that he would be able to readily look up their basic floor plans, 'meet you there.'
Face keyed the commlink off, then checked his blaster pistol. 'Time to head back into the fray!' he said cheerfully.
'Joy of joys,' replied Ka'iulani. She did not sound all that cheerful, but together they marched towards the muffled sound of blasterfire.
It seemed like every stormtrooper in the station had converged on a single intersection, the firefight reaching such an intensity that Face could barely hear his in-helmet comms. He spotted a group of officers who were using visual gestures to communicate their orders. He recognised just enough to learn that they planned a pincer movement, coming in at the trapped insurgents from the sides by blasting holes in the walls to either side of them. Face couldn't help but watch in disbelief, shocked that someone hadn't figured out their on the fly ruse by now, just stopped to check who exactly they were shooting at, but he wasn't about to question their good fortune. Now to just sneak through the assembled mass and get to the cafeteria.
'You there! Sergeant!' one officer yelled at them. 'You two, form up at rally point B!'
'We have orders!' Ka'iulani yelled back.
'Sod your orders! I'm telling you to form up!'
'We've orders from captain Skirata! We need to go to the cafeteria!'
'What?!'
'I said,' she yelled, and then yelled quieter, 'orders from Skirata!'
The officer, a captain who had only managed to fit on half his armour, looked at them in confusion. Ka'iulani waved vaguely in the direction of the galley. He shook his head and waved to his left, in the opposite direction. She nodded enthusiastically, giving him a thumb's up, then headed to the galley. The captain looked ready to protest but a small explosion from down the way distracted him. The two Nexus walked as fast as they dared without making it look like they were deserting the battlefield.
The cafeteria had turned from a barricaded temporary fort to a temporary command centre, where several colonels and a major were huddled around some pushed together tables and studying physical floorplans of the station. the two Nexus entered without comment and hovered uncertainly around the entrance, just waiting.
They didn't have long to wait. The floor beneath them shook with an explosion and Face stumbled and fell onto his bad knee, and he let out a small cry of pain.
'What the devil was that?' said the general. 'That was too large for a wall breach.'
The floor shook again with another explosion, this one closer, louder, stronger.
This far from the fighting, Face could hear the in-helmet comm chatter much more clearly, and as they listened in, Face and Ka'iulani looked at each other, then immediately hit the deck.
Fire roared around them, engulfing the officers, as the far wall simply ceased to exist. Where there had been solid durasteel, there was now an open wound in the side of the station. Face looked up and had a brief look at sunlight and the skyline beyond, before the Nexu's Nest covered the view. As he watched, he saw the ramp lower and Tarrik standing at the top. He was yelling, but the ringing in Face's ears blotted out all sound. But he didn't need telling to know what to do, and he picked himself up and rushed for the Nest, forcing his weakened leg to carry him just a little further. Beside him, Ka'iulani overtook him and easily made the two metre jump to land on the ramp. Flashes of red light flew past him and hit the hull of the ship, the blaster fire too weak to do any damage and all it did was urge Face on. Then he was at the edge of the building, then flying over the gap, and landing flat on to the ramp. Hands took him and dragged him up to safety, even as he felt the ramp rise beneath him, felt the ship vibrate as the engines surged in power, flying them away from the firefight, away from danger, away from the station.
