'Garan!' Face yelled into his comm, the sound of the melee deafening, 'time to go to plan B!'
'Already on it,' Garan replied immediately. 'I had a feeling we'd need it.'
'Face,' Luna yelled at him, 'take Vix and Twitch and take out the shields!' she ducked behind Hoshi's blade as it swept over her, blocking a shot that would have killed her outright.
'With pleasure!' ye replied, and it was. Taking out a base's shields from the inside while accompanied to the thrum of a lightsaber sent him years into the past. Back with Luke and Han, Tycho and Jes, Kell and Ton. Oh, Ton...
The shock of a blast right by his head brought him back to the present, and he sent a couple of shots over the heads of the prisoners. He waited for the last to pass by and waved at Vix and Twitch, who were performing as a rear guard, keeping the pursuing stormtroopers at bay. 'You two, with me!' he ordered them, and ran past Luna and Hoshi at the turbolifts.
'Here,' Luna called to him, 'take this!' and she threw the security cylinder at him, which went high but he managed to catch it with his outstretched hand. 'Meet you at the landing pads!'
Face didn't wait to reply as he spotted a lone squad up ahead, spreading to cut him off. He sent a flurry of shots at them, then, spotted a service passage ahead and to his right, raced for the entrance, diving in, emerging out of the end of the short passage into a fully lit corridor, the sounds of battle immediately becoming faint behind him. As Vix and Twitch emerged from the passage, Face shot the control panel, providing them with a brief respite. 'Where are we?' he asked Twitch. Face and Vix had already discarded their helmets, and Twitch, who was more used to wearing headgear to aid in his pathfinding and sniping missions, had kept his. Face looked about him, keeping an eye for threats, as Twitch brought up the map on his helmet's internal HUD.
'That way!' Twitch pointed to his left, which would take them further from the battle.
Face let Twitch lead the way, leading the way quickly but cautiously down several empty corridors without interference, before a shot rang out behind them and Vix grunted, staggered to the floor. Before Face could even turn, Twitch had already pivoted, let out two shots, and by the time Face had completed his turn, two stormtroopers were lying on the ground. 'Good shooting,' Face said to the Rodian, who celebrated by flourishing his blaster in his hand, before the two turned to the downed Devaronian.
'Just a scratch,' Vix said, then coughed blood.
Face's heart sank. He'd taken a shot underneath his right shoulderblade and, even though the plastoid armour had defracted most of the energy of the blast, it was likely that it had damaged his lung. Vix wheezed as pink bubbles frothed at his mouth, then stood to his full height. 'Don't worry about me. I can still fight.'
Face made a face at him, and brought out his basic medical supplies. It wasn't much, stormtroopers had only basic equipment on their belts, but he pulled out his gauze bandages and covered the wound, letting the coagulant mesh ease the bleeding.
'How far to the power conduits?' Face asked Twitch as he worked, his mind racing. He couldn't read Twitch's face beneath the mask but the way he stayed silent as the seconds ticked by made Face think that he was making the same mental calculations as he was.
'Two hundred metres ahead,' Twitch replied at last.
Face looked ahead, down the corridor. There was a closed blast door about a hundred metres ahead. What lay beyond, he had no idea. 'And what way to the landing pads?'
Twitch pointed to a corridor that branched off ahead of them, to the left side in what his mind vaguely held to be northwards.
'All right, Vix, you secure our exit path.'
