'How do you know?' Luna whispered. She had no real need to whisper, but it was almost as if she had to talk quietly, in case a louder sound scared the knowledge away.
'You remember that old man Nana mentioned?' Mara asked. Luna and Cora nodded. ' I looked into her memories and recognised him - back from when I was with the First Order. His name is Madrius. Slimy little man, I'm not surprised he's doing field work. He loved that threatening people in person. Back then, he worked in a sub-division of First Order intelligence.'
'What makes you think he still works with them?' Cora asked.
'The MO fits. Back then, it was just a fledgling organisation, but the way this raid was carried out was textbook, even back then. I doubt they'd change that - and I doubt they'd change where their headquarters are.'
'You know where that would be?' Luna pressed urgently, feeling excitement build in her.
'Been there myself,' Mara said flatly. Perhaps it was the lighting, Luna thought, but Mara looked different. Blushing - from embarrassment? No, Luna decided. She was ashamed.
'That was in the past,' Luna reassured her. 'You left them. You should be proud of that.'
'I don't need your approval,' Mara snarled, but Luna fancied that Mara appreciated her words. Cora certainly did, for she took Luna's hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. She smiled gratefully at Luna.
'Time to leave?' Cora asked.
'Time to leave,' Luna agreed, putting her helmet back on. Cora and Mara followed suit. Luna walked over to Makai. 'We're going to get you, all of you, out of here. I can't promise any help though. Once things happen, you're on your own.'
Makai nodded at once. 'I understand. Will there be a signal?'
'You'll know it when you see it. Just make sure you grab your chance,' she hated being vague but, in truth, she had no idea how they were going to get out. The tactical part of her, the planner, absolutely hated it. But it was a small planet with a small First Order population and limited ways of getting information on the prison without alerting anyone. 'Just go in and wing it, you'll do fine,' Face had assured her. It was not very reassuring then, and it was even less now. 'The great thing about the element of surprise,' he had said, 'is that even though you don't really know what you're doing, the enemy knows less. You can use that to your advantage,' that made her feel slightly better about the predicament. Luna being beside her was more of a comfort, though. Mara too. There was something about having a brilliant, talented Force sensitive for a girlfriend, and her equally brilliant and absolutely terrifying mother alongside her.
The trio made their way back to the entrance to the recreational room. 'We need to head to processing,' she told the guard.
Annoyingly, the guard was not as obliging as the others. 'No civilians can access prisoner processing.'
Mara stepped forward. 'You will take us to prisoner processsing,' she said silkily.
'No civilians in prisoner processing,' the guard said stoically.
'Now look here, you little shi-' Mara snarled, stepping up to him, but Luna pulled her back.
'I'll handle this,' she assured her, and then to the guard, 'we have special dispensation from the officer of the day to go wherever we need to. It's for an investigation.'
'That seems improbable,' the guard said. 'I'll have to call it in.'
Something beeped on Cora's wrist bracer.
'What was that?' the guard asked her.
'What was what?' Cora replied sweetly.
The stormtrooper tapped the side of his helmet. 'Hm. Comms are acting up. That's...odd.'
Luna wasn't liking how this going, so she said, 'why don't you go get the lieutenant? We're happy to wait here. I'm sure she'll clear this all up.'
The stormtrooper looked at her for a moment, and she hoped that he didn't notice teh sweat beading down her face, or at least that he chalked it up to the heavy armour. At last, he said, 'I think I will,' he looked behind him, into the staff room by the secure gate. 'You two, come keep an eye on these bounty hunters while I go talk to the rupert,' he gave them one last appraising look before the gate opened and he stepped through, the other two coming in to stand guard, watching them. Luna made a great show of turning away from the gate to face Cora, Mara and the rest of the recreational room.
'What do we do now?' Cora whispered to her.
'Count,' she said, and started to count in her head, imagining every step that the guard would take to get to the main entrance. As she did, she looked around the room once again, checking for their security cameras. She had already had a quick, surrepticious look when she first stepped into the room, but now took her time to mark every location, their fields of view. She grimaced as the list of all the ones looking in their direction grew. 'We have too many eyes,' she said mysteriously, her lips barely moving, the words hardly escaping her mouth.
'On it,' Cora said, and closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in deep concentration. Luna was pleased to see the nearest cam shift its gaze away from them. Then, another, a wall mounted camera bubble - it couldn't move so Cora must have reached into its internal circuitry, for the light flickered, then died. It was a crude, brute force tactic, having Luna disable the cameras, an action that any viewers elsewhere would definitely find suspicious - but it would buy them crucial seconds of confusion.
In Luna's mind, she pictured the guard reaching the reception area, and so she turned to Mara. 'Try to get through to these two,' she told her.
Mara nodded and stepped up to the two guards. 'You will let us through.'
'I ... will let you through,' said the first.
'Huh?' said the second.
'You will let us through.'
'Look, lady, I don't know what you think is going to happen, but - Five-Eight, why are you unlocking the gate?'
Cora's eyes snapped open. 'Done.'
'Take them out,' Luna ordered at once, turning around and raising her rifle. Luna stretched out a hand and one of the stormtroopers went flying. The other, Mara took care of herself, kneeing him swiftly between the legs, grabbing his helmet as he bent over and pulled his head down as she brought her knee up again, this time connecting to his head. The stormtrooper went down like a sack of Brekka beets.
Luna unholstered her blaster. 'Let's go,' she said to the other two, before charging through the door.
