The Jade Arrow flew fast and low over the barren white plans. They had only 17 minutes, after all, to make the drop.
Luna considered herself a fine pilot, but even she would have thought twice at flying this low - a necessary tactic, to avoid being picked up on radar - mere metres above the ground. Sometimes not even that, as that rapidly approaching snow drift very forcefully reminded her, but Mara simply lifted tilted her port wing by a few degrees and the ship coasted over, leaving a flurry in their wake. She had long made her peace with not being Force sensitive, but at times like this. To call on the Force to give her the reflexes needed, to give her the foresight, knowledge of what's to come. But mainly to calm her frayed nerves. Give her open space anyday, where no barely visible hill could wipe them out in the blink of an eye.
Hoshi wrapped an arm around her waist, and Luna felt a warm feeling fill her. 'Are you okay?'
'There are no hills in space!' Luna blurted out, and Hoshi's sympathetic gaze gave way to visible confusion. 'Sorry,' she muttered, and Hoshi leaned in closer, resting her head on Luna's chest. Luna stayed rigid for a moment, before melting into the embrace. Ahead, she saw, the city of Anaxe rapidly grew in size.
'One minute,' Mara told them.
Behind them, Luna heard Ro'vena's steps on the metallic grating of the stairs, and a second later the Twi'lek stepped into the cockpit and stood beside them.
If Luna hadn't known that there were no other Twi'leks of the Arrow, she would have thought the woman standing beside her was a complete stranger. Gone was the bubbly, effervescent Ro'vena. In her stead was a grim young woman with tired, broken eyes, who stood as if she held the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders. She returned Luna's gaze and there was no recognition there, no spark. And when she spoke it sounded like a tired sigh. 'Are you sure you don't want to touch up your costumes one last time?'
Luna looked at her own clothes. Up until a moment ago she had thought that she and Hoshi had done a good job of 'fatiguing' their clothes, making them look worn and beaten. Clothes that had seen a rough few years. Looking at Ro'vena, though, she felt like a shabby wannabe actor working on a low budget holodrama, whereas Ro'vena actually looked like she had been living rough her entire life.
'Too late,' Mara said. The Arrow came to a jarring halt and Luna had to brace herself against the back of the co-pilot's chair to stop herself from falling over. 'We're here.'
The three thanked Mara for the ride and, joining Amoya at the top of the starboard ramp, exited the ship, the frigid air greeting them like a thousand daggers. Together they rushed away so that Mara could rotate the ship and head back to the safety of the south pole.
It was a long walk to the city edge, made quicker by the biting wind, but once they had gone a few streets in, the wind dropped significantly. 'How are they doing that?' Hoshi wondered out loud. 'I didn't feel any energy field.'
'It's the buildings,' Luna pointed up and down the street, which wasn't long. 'They're placed like bricks on a wall. The buildings are offset so that there's always a building in front of a gap, blocking the wind,' she had noticed the irregularity of the layout of the city in their pieced together intel, but had thought it was either a tactical decision to have a maze-like layout to confuse any intruders, or perhaps a local or historical reason, that eschewed the modern convenience of a more organised grid-like pattern of city planning. Stepping into the windless and almost warm city itself, this new reason seemed like the most likely choice.
'Let's keep moving,' Ro'vena urged them, her voice dull. 'Standing around is going to draw attention to us. Best to look busy.'
'She's right,' Amoya said, looking around her. 'We stand out enough already. Let's go this way.'
'Why that way?' Luna frowned in the direction she was pointing.
Amoya pointed in the opposite direction. 'No graffiti,' she pointed back at her original direction - specifically, a small side alley. 'Graffiti.'
'It's as good a reason as any,' Ro'vena agreed. Amoya beamed at her.
Luna shrugged, and thought to herself that this was a quick and easy way to get into trouble, rather than find a place to hold up and conduct their scouting missions from, but she said nothing and led the way.
It didn't take long for her to regret saying nothing. She would have looked so smug when they walked into the ambush.
