'What do you mean, they have him?' Luna asked, her voice hollow. When she had joked with Amoya about being captured every mission all those days ago, she didn't mean to be prophetic.
'They took him,' Garan replied, his voice thick with emotion. 'They got him before I got there.'
'We have to go back,' Hoshi said urgently, hovering by her shoulder. Luna looked at her, then about her. Her shuttle was armed with only two light laser cannons, and it was crammed with prisoners - to such a degree that it was standing room only even in the cockpit. She checked her radar. Above her, two of the star destroyers had converged on their exit point. On long range sensors, she saw, the third was rapidly closing in. The Nest and the Arrow were trying to distract them but they had a swarm of TIEs buzzing around them. 'Mara,' she spoke into the comm, 'disengage and disappear back into the planet's atmosphere. I need you to stay and keep an eye on that base.'
'Why?' Mara asked curtly, though she did as she was told, pulling away from the fight and heading off into space. That wasn't exactly what Luna had had in mind, but she trusted Mara to have a plan of infiltration.
'They have Face,' it was Hoshi that replied, her voice hoarse.
Mara swore. 'He's not going to like me coming to his rescue. It'll be my pleasure,' she said with delicious malice. Somehow the sound of a happy Mara made Luna feel comforted. That was definitely a thought that she'd have to unpack later.
Luna turned to her radar again. Alone, the Nest stood no chance against the First Order onslaught. Behind them, TIEs were launching from Hastaati base and rapidly gaining altitude. The shuttles, meanwhile, were barely at the edge of the atmosphere. 'Nest, just hold on a little longer, then jump as soon as we're clear of the planet's gravity well. Sending you rendezvous coordinates now,' she transmitted the coordinates, then sent them to the other shuttles. She knew Garan would join up with her, but she could only hope that the prisoner piloted ones would do the same. 'Pilots,' she said over the comm. 'Head to the destination I've just sent you. You don't have to stay with us, but it's in everyone's best interests to stick together, at least until we're all out of danger.'
There was no response from the other shuttles, until one spoke up. She recognised the voice of the Mon Calamari pilot. 'We'll stay - but just for now.'
That was the best Luna could hope for, so she didn't push it. Her shuttle rocked as it was hit with laser blasts from the pursuing TIEs, but the shields held. Ahead of her, the clouds broke and she saw a clear star field. 'Nest, disengage now!' she yelled, alarmed at the mass of red dots on her radar that nearly completely hid the lone green dot that signified the Nest. Out of the cockpit window, to her left, she saw the long slim dagger profiles of the star destroyers. Pin pricks of explosions erupted around them as if someone had let off fireworks, and as she watched the explosions turned to green and red laster bolts as the Nest zoomed away from the battle, rapidly getting bigger as it flew towards them, a misshapen lump of scorched metal, with its Uglies attached to the starfighter rack. A flicker of pseudomotion out of the corner of her eye told her that one of the shuttles had made the jump to hyperspace, and she checked her radar again. The other shuttles were free of the planet and were lining up to make their jumps into hyperspace, with only Garan's still in the atmosphere, under assault by three TIEs, but it, too, managed to escape the atmosphere. Luna brought her shuttle alongside Garan's, giving him some cover. As her shuttle swooped down towards the planet, the clouds parted. She was far too high up to make out the base, but she easily spotted the tear drop shape of Anaxe city. Hastaati base was hidden in the darkness, but it was that, as much as the spectre of Face that floated in her mind's eye, that she spoke to. 'I'll come back for you. I promise.'
She turned her ship away from the planet's surface as, together with Garan's shuttle and the nest, they made their escape into the comforting black and blue of hyperspace.
