There was no way a squadron of x-wings and two cruisers could win, but they didn't need to. They just needed to cause enough chaos to make their escape. Fortunately, Nexu squadron excelled at chaos.
'Black Leader,' Face spoke into his comm, 'I need you to get in close to the lead star destroyer and cover our jump.'
'Happy to,' replied Black Leader, and Face frowned. That didn't sound like Poe Dameron. And then he snapped his fingers in recognition. 'Snap, is that you?'
'The one and only,' Snap Wexley replied lightly.
'I used to fly with your parents. Your mom was one hell of a flyer.'
'I'll tell her you remember her, when this is all done. Wedge too.'
'Appreciate that, son,' Face smiled to himself, then grimaced and pulled hard on the steering yoke as a TIE seemed intent on flying headlong into them. He turned to Luna, beside him. 'Send them the meet up coordinates, then plot some small jumps out of the system.'
'On it, Face.'
Even in the midst of battle, he let himself have a moment to look at her. It felt so good to have her back. Not just as his second in command, but as a friend. The Nest shuddered with an impact and the turbo cannons blared their response, and he cursed himself for getting so distracted. He searched for a gap in the encroaching star destroyers, which was more than a little difficult with the several TIE fighter squadrons screening them, blocking their exit, but a flight of x-wings came up from behind the Nest and raced past, their quad laser cannons scattering one group of TIEs and Face took his chance, shooting the Nest through the gap and out into free space, leaving the star destroyers, the TIEs, the First Order all behind.
'We're out!' he yelled gleefully into his comm. 'Time to bolt, Black squadron. I owe you big time for this.'
'I might hold you to that,' Snap replied. On the radar, Face could see Snap peeling his flight away from the lead star destroyer and making their dash for freedom, as the other two flights did the same. Behind them, though, the First Order was gathering their forces, their numbers making Face break out in a cold sweat. Without any further word, he sent the Nest into hyperspace.
Three short jumps later, they found themselves in orbit over Bnar III, where they had stowed their Uglies. They didn't have long to wait for Black squadron to arrive and, together, they headed towards the surface.
They had hidden their snub fighters in a small canyon in the northern hemisphere, the canyon appearing as a small red gash of rock in an otherwise lush planet. Even though it was midday and the sun was bright overhead, Face had difficulty locating their fighters, thanks to the camouflage coverings, until he was a few dozen metres away. As soon as the Nest settled on its landing pads, the ramp dropped down and Vix and Twitch rushed out to secure the fighters, checking to see if they had been tampered with or otherwise damaged. Just because their navicomputer told them the planet was uninhabited doesn't mean it was necessarily true, and it was a good idea to send out the muscles first. After a few minutes of watching from the cockpit, Face saw Vix give the all clear signal, and he unstrapped himself to head out. Beside him, Luna spoke up before he could leave, 'I'm going to send up a passive sensor to detect any incoming jumps. Could you send Zatt up to help out? I couldn't find her earlier.'
Face's stomach churned. This was going to hurt. 'She's...no longer with us.'
Luna frowned, but said nothing, just waited for him to elaborate.
'The spy,' he began, then Luna interrupted.
'Oh! Face, I'm so sorry. With everything that happened, I forgot. But I mentioned in my ping message that Cora wasn't the spy. What happened? Did you find them? I saw Fenn was wounded.'
His stomach felt hollow. He was so tired, his body in pain. He just didn't have the strength to tell her everything. 'It was Zatt. She was the spy.'
Luna looked at him for a moment, then turned away, sinking into her chair. 'Oh.'
'I'm afraid,' Face paused, trying to find the right words. 'She died.'
'Good.'
The word came so quickly that it shocked him. But of course, he realised, she didn't know. 'No,' he said softly. His brain was becoming fuzzy with fatigue, but he had to get this right. 'She was being used. I can't blame her.'
Luna looked at him, confused, but he held up a hand placatingly. 'Later. I'll explain later,' then left her and headed out and down into the belly of the ship.
As he reached the cargo hold, sounds of a commotion reached him and he went to investigate, where he saw Ka'iulani, Kai and Ro'vena rummaging about in the floor compartments, and he realised they were seeing to their prisoners. He realised, too, that he had completely forgotten about them. Ashamed, he ambled over, his leg sore and stiffening, slowing his pace.
The Nexus had bound and gagged them, though now someone had removed their gags and had given them food and water, which they struggled to consume with their hands still bound. As Face came to stand over them, the woman - the sergeant, if he remembered correctly - looked up and glared at him. He couldn't blame her.
'I'm sorry for the rough treatment,' he told her. 'We're not exactly equipped for prisoners. Rest assured, you're not in any danger. You'll be treated with dignity and respect.'
'Blast your dignity,' she replied harshly, between mouthfulls. 'Kill us now. We'll never talk.'
'If you wanted to die so much, why are you eating so greedily?'
She stopped chewing. It was a silly little gotcha, but it didn't hurt to play some mind games, make them think about their situation.
He left them to it and headed to the medbay.
Tarrik was already there, leaning over an unconscious Fenn, as he had been so many times. This time, though, things seemed different. Tarrik's shoulders weren't so tense. He seemed loose.
'How are they doing, Doc?' Face asked softly. He couldn't help speaking quietly, as if a louder noise would damage Fenn. Which was stupid, considering all they'd been through to get there.
'I'm going to continue to keep them in a medically induced for now,' Tarrik exclaimed in a rush, then smiled. 'But I'm incredibly hopeful. They're responding very well. Ka'iulani's idea of operating with military grade equipment was a good idea; I fear if we had gone to a regular hospital, they wouldn't have had the necessary equipment, or anything nearly this high grade,' he paused and Face wondered if he was looking at him with a particularly dumb look, for when Tarrik spoke again, he said simply, 'they will live, Face. It was a success.'
Face heaved a sigh of relief, feeling like a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders. 'Good,' he smiled. 'That's good. Good work, Tarrik.'
Face left him to it. He saw, as he turned left to head to the ramp, that Cora was hanging around the edge of the cargo space, hiding in the shadows. She looked nervous, watching the others warily, as if they were going to attack her at any moment. He wondered what it must be like for her, in that moment. Before he could make his way over to her, though, she turned to look at the corridor leading to the ramp, and he turned to see what had caught her attention.
It was strange, but he had never noticed before just how dark that corridor looked. Nor how sound seemed to have been dampened. But then he saw movement. A flash of red in a sea of greasy darkness, and a woman stepped out of the shadows, and it was as if his insides had turned to ice, his whole body screamed at him to flee, to run from this monster.
Then Cora waved at the terror. 'Hey mom!'
